for Dr. Marra's Introduction to Fluid Mechanics Course
June 2023 - July 2023
Final Product
For our Introduction to Fluid Mechanics laboratory course,
we have experimental systems that show us engineering
principles in practice. One of those principles was how a
rapid reduction in the diameter of some piping would affect
fluid flow properties. Dr. Marra asked me to modernize the
old system and this is my final product.
Planning Phase
My task for this project was to design a replacement orifice
plate to fit the existing setup shown on the left. The overall
system is meant to display fluid mechanics principles to
junior undergraduates in mechanical engineering.
There were two main issues with the existing system. Firstly,
the original orifice plate was difficult for students to
effectively replace during the course of the laboratory.
Additionally, the pressure measurement measurement locations
were placed relatively far from each other. This meant that
students needed to subtract the pressure losses over that
length of pipe to isolate the pressure drop caused solely by
the orifice plate.
After making an assessment of the system and evaluating what
components should go where, I made a basic mockup of the
system in Figma to enable me to easily redesign the system in
a low fidelity way.
Construction Phase
After finishing the design of the system in Figma and later in
Solidworks, I then began building the system. The orifice
plate piece itself was machined from stock PVC purchased off
McMaster Carr. The rest of the PVC parts were purchased off
the shelf. All part product codes were maintained in the
Solidworks file to enable easy traceability. The beauty of my
design was that a new orifice section could be quickly swapped
in and out by hand loosening and tightening the unions
involved in the design. Dr. Marra preferred that a replacement
section was essentially one continuous part.
After machining the part out of the stock PVC, I was easily
able to fit everything together with my off-the-shelf parts
and seal things together with a solvent welding solution.
The rest of the installation came together as detailed in my
Figma and Solidworks drawings with sections cut as necessary.
Here is my replacement system in place of the previous
system.
For our Introduction to Fluid Mechanics laboratory course,
we have experimental systems that show us engineering
principles in practice. One of those principles was how a
rapid reduction in the diameter of some piping would affect
fluid flow properties. Dr. Marra asked me to modernize the
old system and this is my final product.
