December 13, 2007
Lab: Amber and Beth typed up a paper covering all they have completed during the semester. The first draft was weak, but after input from Dr. Morrison we were able to improve the paper. It includes all of the problems we have overcome during the semester.
Group: The last group meeting for the semester was today. We discussed what needed to be done over winter break. It has been a successful semester of research and we are all excited to continue next semester
Beth
December 6, 2007
Lab: The ozone experiments are completed. Amber and Beth found the background ozone decay for the chamber and also using methane decay found the loss due to leaks in the chamber. The next step is to introduce terpenes into the chamber. The calculations were performed to determine the amount of the terpene to introduce into the chamber and at what rate.
Website: A questionnaire has been placed on the website to get input from the public. The questionnaire is being refined as the research is advancing.
CONTAM: We received some feedback on how to operate contam. A tutorial on how to set up basic systems in contam was sent to us.
Beth
November 26, 2007
Computer: Please note that there is an applet up and running on the Consumer Web Interface portion of the website. This is a test to see how the applet runs on the web. It is also a test to see if I can get the same answer using a computer program as Amber and Beth get doing the same experiment in the lab.
Equation: C = C0e-(1/ t)*t
Where we are finding the time (t) it takes for an initial concentration of methane takes to get to the normal air (1.745 ppm). C0 = 1000 ppm for the max allowable methane in a room. And t = 0.5 hr-1
The input number of stoves is pretending that each stove gives off 1000 ppm of methane. So we will iterate t (hr) until the concentration (right side of equation) equals the left. The difference becomes zero after 12.79 hours. This is almost identical to what the lab achieved.
Ashley
Sorry, we are having difficulties with the above applet which has been moved from the Consumer Web Interface portion of the website.
November 12, 2007
Lab: Beth and I have finally finished balancing the inlet and outlet. We are also able to get the whole system working together. The next step is for us to find the background decay of ozone. To do this, we blocked the inlet and outlet to the chamber. Then we fill the chamber with ozone for 24 hours resulting in a very high concentration of ozone. After 24 hours, we turn off the ozone and allow it to decay with time. The decay rate is our background decay. We have had some problems finding this decay though because of a major leak and some other problems. We are hoping to get these experiments done this week.
Model: Beth worked on creating a simplified model. She wrote down and explained the equations with Ashley and me. The three of us have also created a sample problem that we have tested in the big chamber, can model with Contam, and Ashley can program a model. We are working on this during the week. Meredith has also given us a more complicated model that she is working on and is going to explain it to Beth and me more on Thursday.
Contam: We are still working on understanding Contam. I have been trying to work on the model that I described earlier by modeling the large chamber and adding methane to our species database. Since we are having such a hard time with Contam, Beth is planning to email to find if there is a tutorial or anything else that could help us.
Amber
November 1, 2007
Computer: At today’s meeting I demonstrated my Java client to C++ server sockets for the rest of the INDAQS team:
My goal for next week is to get a Java Applet client to connect to a C++ server. I want the Java Applet to ask for room dimensions which it will send to the server. The server will then compute the room dimensions into area and volume of the room. It will send it back to the server and display them, hopefully.
Until next time,
Ashley
October 29, 2007
Lab: We are finally finished finding the inlet air exchange rates. This week we started balancing the outlet. So far our results are looking good.
Contam: We finally have everything installed to run tests with Contam. We also have been able to download the user manual which makes using Contam much easier. We have been able to model two zones with one contaminant source. We also have air flow lines. Even though we were able to create the model, we aren't really able to understand the results. We still need to learn more about the program.
Beth
October 25, 2007
Computer: This meeting we decided that this week I would work on getting the C++ to Java sockets to work. I showed a demo to the group that my Java to Java socket which was a simple echo server. I'm hoping that my cross language sockets will work smoothly, but that doesn’t seem terribly likely.
Ashley
October 22, 2007
Computer: After finally getting over my Bronchitis, well mostly, I presented to Dr. Tauritz my initial work with sockets. For my first experiment with sockets I worked on making a simple C++ to C++ socket. I ran into some problems with the fact that I wanted to do math and the program works with character arrays, but besides that I had it up in running in no time. For this week I will work on a Java to Java socket. My goal after that is working up to a Java to C++ socket. The reason for this is so we can have a Java Applet for our user interface and a C++ program running on a server for our computationally intense calculations.
Lab: In the past few weeks, Amber and Beth have been having some difficulties in the lab. They did tape up the ducts. After doing this though, their air exchange rates were too high. To lower the rates, they put some screens before the blower. However, this did not help lower the air exchange rate. Their next attempt was to add 4 more inches of activated carbon. This did work to lower the air exchange rate, but the rate was low and didn't have a very wide range. Next they removed 2 inches of activated carbon. They have fairly good air exchange rates at about 0.6 per hour but the range still is not very large. They need to decide if this is a good model for an average house, and also test that their rates are reproducible.
Ashley
October 4, 2007
Lab: We learned that our flow rates are more reproducible at greater values. The dial is not reproducible which means we need to look at the pressure drop to estimate the flow rates. In order to see how reproducible this is, Beth and I need to find the standard deviation of the pressure drop and we need to test at a greater range of flow rates. One example we should try is to extrapolate the necessary pressure drop to get a flow rate of 0.6 and test if we get the result we want.
In the lab, we also need to see how effective the activated carbon is at removing the ozone from the air going into the chamber. To do this, Beth and I need to find the concentration of ozone in the room first and then see concentration of ozone in the chamber.
Finally, there is an air leak in the joints of the duct leading the air through the blower, activated carbon and into the chamber. To fix this, we need to clean any oil that is on the ducts and you duct tape to seal all the joints.
Contam: Beth and I ran a simulation of two zones and one emission source. We learned how to use the software, but need more information installed before we can really understand the program. We need to get together with Ashley to try a simulation again. Also we need to find what data is available with Contam and the format that data is in. The data might be useful for us by possibly letting our database get information from their database.
Interface: Ashley is still working on interfacing Java with C++. She has been following a tutorial. She mainly just needs to compile and add the final changes. Ashley also needs to look into a socket interface.
Amber
September 27, 2007
Lab: We are going to create a plot of pressure drop vs. air exchange rate that includes all the experiments we have performed so far. We are also going to download CONTAM 2.4 and practice using it. The first run will include two zones and a single emission source. This week we will also start running experiments with ozone and rerun air exchange rate experiments to make sure we can reproduce the air exchange rate.
Computer: Start interfacing Java with C++.
Beth
September 22, 2007
This week we have really begun the work on our project. Elizabeth and I, with Meredith's help, got our first experiment going in the big chamber.
Ashley created her first java applet. Also this week, we got our website designed. So far everything is going well and is very interesting.
For next week we are working on understanding Contam, learning how to communicate between Java and C++, and getting the website up.
Amber