Northwestern Engineerng Design Senior Capstone Team: Jeremy Fu, Howard Liu, Morgan Hogan, Joyce D’Aprile, Alexis Liu / George Parsons of Shedd Aquarium, Chicago
Project Description
Design an aquarium tank that most closely replicates the natural habitat of the Portuguese Man O’ War to allow George Parsons, Senior Curator and Invertebrate Biologist, to study one full lifecycle.
Skills Applied
Design Research, Brainstorming, Mock-Up Building, CAD, Prototyping
Context
Northwestern University, Manufacturing & Design Engineering Capstone (Winter, Spring 2019)
Final Design
A two-part system: a Kreisel tank and wind simulator. This design leverages the fundamentals of fluid mechanics wherein a laminar flow pattern keeps the PMW from making contact with tank walls.
spray bar creates a wall of laminar flow
SOLIDWORKS model of final concept
Demo Video | Time Lapse Test
This video was recorded over the course of three hours. It proves that our flow pattern resists the drift force of the model PMW in an open tank system. This concept is robust provided that the model PMW is an accurate representation of the average PMW’s physicality and the PMW has no motor abilities of its own.