17. Applications and Implications
Requirements
Your project should incorporate 2D and 3D design, additive and subtractive fabrication processes, electronics design and production, embedded microcontroller interfacing and programming, system integration and packaging where possible. You should make rather than buy the parts of your project. Projects can be separate or joint, but need to show individual mastery of the skills, and be independently operable.
What will it do?
The final project is comprised of a wave flume, which is divided into two distinct components: an acrylic container and a wave generator. The wave flume wave generator will permit the generation of low-amplitude, long-wavelength waves that can be described using Airy's Linear Wave Theory. In this generator, it will be possible to vary its period, displacement, and speed. This will result in the possibility of indirectly varying the period, wavelength, and amplitude of the resulting waves.
Wave Generator
Who's done what beforehand?
A plethora of information on the design and construction of wave simulation facilities can be found in books and scientific articles. Of particular interest are wave flumes, which have been extensively studied due to their simplicity in theoretical characterization and relatively low computational expense. Examples include:
- De la Hoz Tovar, E. (2018). Fundamentos del funcionamiento de un canal de olas; diseño y montaje de un canal de olas de doce metros de longitud en el laboratorio de Mecánica de Fluidos de la Escuela de Ingeniería de Bilbao.
- Dean, R. G. (1984). Water wave mechanics for engineers and scientists. Advanced series on ocean engineering, 2, 353.
- Eckart, C. (1951). Surface waves on water of variable depth. University of California, Scripps.
- Emam, M., Press, C., Jafarzadeh, H., Belcastro, M., O'Flynn, B., Casserly, J., & Kane, F. (2021, Novembre 14). Wave height estimation using a novel seaweed-attached sensor. SENSORCOMM 2021 The Fifteenth International Conference on Sensor Technologies and Applications, Athens, Greece.
- Fenton, J. D., & McKee, W. D. (1990). On calculating the lengths of water waves. Coastal Engineering, 14(6), 499-513.
- Havelock, T. H., & F.R.S. (1929). Forced surface-waves on water. The London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science, 8(51), 569-576.
- Hughes, S. A. (1993). Physical Models and Laboratory Techniques in Coastal Engineering: Vol. Volumen 7. World Scientific
- Hugues Torres, R. (2009). Estudio de expresiones y métodos para el cálculo de la longitud de ola. Revista Ingeniaría Hidráulica y Ambiental, XXX(1), 42-47.
- Johnson, R. S. (1997). A modern introduction to the mathematical theory of water waves. Cambridge university press.
- Kuznetsov, N. G., Maz'ya, V., & Vainberg, B. (2002). Linear Water Waves: A Mathematical Approach. Cambridge University Press.
- Madsen, O. S. (1970). Waves generated by a piston-type wavemaker. En Coastal Engineering 1970 (pp. 589-607).
What will you design?
The following components were designed for this project: the base for the wave generator, the paddle of the wave generator, the bracket to align the paddle, the control board that manages the movement of the wave generator paddle, and the floating symmetric objects that will be used for clustering studies. The design of these various elements constituted a significant aspect of the project work. All de denign fill are on Final Project page.
What materials and components will be used and its costs?
| Material | Cost | Quantity | Link to buy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Acrylic sheets 2300x300x10 mm | 82.61 € | 3 | Buy here |
| Acrylic sheets 300x300x10 mm | 10.78 € | 4 | Buy here |
| Pack of 10 hex head screws, 50 mm long | 7.85 € | 6 | Buy here |
| Clear Silicone Sealant Dow Corning 781 310ml | 26.42 € | 2 | Buy here |
| Kit of aluminium profiles | 84.39 € | 1 | Buy here |
| Stepper Motor Bipolar Nema 17 | 25.14 € | 1 | Buy here |
| XIAO RP2040 Microcontroller | 32.66 € | 1 | Buy here |
| 300 mm T8 threaded rod with trapezoidal head, stainless steel and brass nut | 9.08 € | 1 | Buy here |
| Rigid Coupler 5 x 8 mm Blue | 4.50 € | 1 | Buy here |
| Pack of 5 Driver Module A4988 for Stepper Motor | 10.49 € | 1 | Buy here |
| Pack of 4 Linear Bearing Slide Block SCS12UU | 14.70 € | 1 | Buy here |
| Steel cylinder linear shaft with a diameter of 12 mm and a length of 400 mm | 12.99 € | 2 | Buy here |
| Power Supply 9V 2A 18W | 12.99 € | 1 | Buy here |
| Filament PLA 1.75 mm 1 kg | 29.99 € | 1 | Buy here |
| Total cost of the project | 640.81 € |
Where will come from?
This project draws inspiration from one of the results of my Master's thesis in Physical Sciences: "Experiments in Fluid Dynamics: Characterization Applying Kalman Filters". In this thesis, I designed and constructed a wave flume using recycled materials and low-cost electronics, which served as the hydrodynamic system to be characterized. This characterization was conducted through the analysis of the period, wavelength, and amplitude magnitudes of the generated waves, employing three implementations of an Extended Kalman Filter with sequential data fusion for two presented models.
First Wave Flume of the Faculty of Physics of the University of Havana, Cuba
What parts and systems will be made?
Using 3D printing, the following will be realized:
Using the CNC the board that will control the wave generator will be made.
Using the laser cutting machine, the paddle of the wave generator will be made of 10 mm thick acrylic.
What processes will be used?
What questions need to be answered?
How will it be evaluated?
In order to evaluate the performance of the wave generator, the number of parameters that can be varied within the schedule and the ability to generate linear waves of different relative depths will be measured.