Western University Faculty of Engineering

ES 1050 - Foundations of Engineering Practice

Studio Section 16 – Ibrahim Ibrahim
Team 5
Date submitted

Iteration Report Fall Project

Muhemin Al-Dhuragi, Anne Johnston, Robert Vaughn, Luigj Ndoja, Anthony Dicriscio
ES 1050 2021 Fall Project Iteration Report Template

Design Iteration 1
The original design involved a pressure sensor hooked up to Arduino and two valves where the
reactant would go into and out of the plastic bottle vessel originally planned out for use. The original
idea was to place baking soda at the bottom of the bottle and code a dispenser in the valves to release
vinegar into the bottle to increase the pressure using Arduino and the pressure sensor. Not only would
the bottle be threaded for the pressure sensor to connect to the valve, but the reactant dispensing valve
was also originally intended to be connected to the pressure sensor so that when to dispense reactant
could also be analyzed along with the pressure. The intention was to have the reactants mix through a
motor at the bottom of the bottle with a magnet The original vessel was originally intended to
inside the vessel and a magnet on the motor so reach a psi of 10 by mixing the reactants through
that the mixing would occur inside the vessel reactant valves and a motor attached to the
without any touching needed to be done. bottom of the vessel that mixes reactants
together by code from Arduino and a magnet
inside the vessel itself.
For
evaluation, a meeting occurred amongst the group members
during Week 3 where members purchased the needed materials,
calculated what was necessary, and tested out the basic reaction
between vinegar and baking soda to see the psi reached and
assessed how the original vessel worked. When performing a basic
experiment on the vessel, the vessel and the pressure sensor
bottle that was used blew up. When assessing the Arduino code
and the vessel post reaction, it was clear that a tougher plastic was
needed for the reaction to hold up inside the vessel. What was
expected by the group members was that the psi reached would
The group meetup during Week 3
be 10 psi. When looking at the data it was also clear that the
which involved discussing the base application of the pressure sensor and the valves was improper.
idea, making any changes in the spur Pressure would barely rise and when it did rise the result achieved
of the moment, and handing out was the vessel blowing up as shown. The mechanism originally
responsibilities to each group
used for the vessel was changed as well. Originally, the vessel was
member.
mixed by just the motor spinning and mixing reactants inside of
the vessel. What was finalized was that the tubing was great and held pressure and the reactants well,
the vessel was too weak to hold 10 psi, the amount of reactant calculated was incorrect and needed
revaluation, and that the mixing mechanism was not good enough to create a stable reaction. The final
problem is that holes would blow in the vessel causing it to slightly leak and the pressure to leave.

The experimentation for the original vessel showed

many failures as previously explained, to counteract the weak
polymer used for our original vessel, the group went to ABS
pipe plastic as the better option after much thought as ABS pipe
plastic by many in the group was known to hold up to at least
100 psi for the weakest ABS pipes. What was recalculated was
the amount of reactant needed for the target pressure to be
ES 1050 2021 Fall Project Iteration Report Template

acquired and the ratio acquired was 0.1069922275L to 0.07880188175L. With recalculation done by
each group member and online experimentation viewed to backup the values, it was concluded that this
ratio is experimentally and theoretically backed up. The piping used was perfectly fine and held up
during the reaction perfectly, the group therefore decided to leave it be. The Arduino code was adjusted
so that any technical errors not accounted for originally were fixed. Examples of errors fixed was the
improper connection of the information to excel, so a part of the information graphed was incorrect and
the genuine values were not obtained. This was fixed as Luigj recoded Arduino and properly connected
it to Excel. The vessel leaking was also solved by the change of switching out the vessel’s original make
for ABS piping plastic. The interior extrusion of two inches made it thick enough for the vessel not to
break for pressures above 50 psi. The changes made accounted for the problems of; too much reactant,
improper coding, weak vessels, and vessel leaking. Other mechanisms and changes made was the
wooden stand seen in the photo was created to hold the vessel in it’s place, a fish pump was added to
move the reactants from one part of the vessel to the next part of the vessel, and all of this was put
together by JB weld, epoxy glue, and cementing glue for the caps to ensure they do not blow off the ABS
material.

Design Iteration 2
This design iteration was all
ideation with no actual creation as the first
iteration was simply developed to a point
where the group believed that this
iteration should not be continued. For this
iteration though, the original vessel was a
more mechanical approach as opposed to
the first iteration where the approach was
more computed and software based with
the use of Arduino. With this approach the
basic idea was that a tube would be
connected to a separate compartment to
This picture depicts the second design iteration, with the
the vessel with vinegar reactant within it. It
baking soda in the vessel and the vinegar in the separate
would have a rotating wheel with string
compartment to later be dispensed into the vessel as the
attached to it that would be connected to a
reaction goes on.
motor. The idea was that the pressure sensor
connected to the vessel with the rotating
wheel also wired to spin as the pressure is too low and
stop when the pressure is too high. The idea was that a
lever would be in the wheel, where the lever would
open the valve up so that reactant would be dispensed
in correspondence to the readings on the Arduino and
Excel. The bigger the pressure the less the wheel would
spin, if the pressure was too high the wheel would stop
ES 1050 2021 Fall Project Iteration Report Template

spinning, the if there was little pressure the wheel would spin more, with the pressure being too low causing the
wheel to spin a lot so the reactant can be dispensed at a better rate.

Although the experiment with this vessel was not performed as it would take too much money and
disorganize the group, instead the group thought of errors that would occur with this design iteration during
experimentation. The group concluded that with the same 10 psi goal as the previous iteration’s original vessel,
this vessel would blow up as well, as the calculations for the reactants needed for the target psi being the same.
Thus, it was believed that the same solution would be needed, which was having vessel material being switched
to ABS piping plastic. Another possible error would come from the rotating wheel, as the wheel could possibly
rip open the valve connected to the vessel due to friction and the implementation being too hard to carry out. It
was also believed that the motor and the wheel spinning would be too inconsistent depending on certain
circumstances, such as the pressure starting off too high for the wheel to spin or the pressure starting off too
low for the wheel to stop spinning. This would also cause the problem of inconsistent pressure increase to come
to fruition. The solutions made were to switch the
vessel material for ABS piping plastic, switch the The final version of the second iteration accounting for
spinning wheel for a simple lever that moves in and the possible errors substituted the wheel for a simple
out to close off the valve when there is too much lever connected to a pressure transmitting compartment,
reactant. The final product was similar to the original that takes some of the pressure from the vessel and
vessel for the first iteration, with a few minor sends the pressure to the Arduino connected
changes to the vessel, the placement of the lever, motherboard, and performs analyzation to determine
and how the reactant is placed. whether the lever opens or closes