Week 9

We have reached the end of the road. After weeks of experiments and calculations, we have finally come to a concrete result and conclusion. This week was a finalization of every steps taken over the past 9 weeks of hard work. This week's focus was very clear and straight forward. A lot of effort was put in writing the final report, which will determine how efficient was our research through out this whole term and what our solution to prevent the rice crop from being blown away was. From the results of the many calculations, we have concluded that the best way to help the farmers was the shrub model, in which we plant shrubs around the field. That will weaken the strength of the wind and reduce the speed at which it hits the crops. In addition to that, if the farmers decide to plan shrubs such as coffee, then it will also be beneficial as a source of revenue. 

We will present in a formal way to a panel and hope to continue with more research in the future to help communities such as Bo Klua.

Wednesday 6th June - Last meeting before submission

Every members parts for the report was put together and edited as complete document to make sure the flow of the report was perfect.
The anemometer arrived so the speed of the fan was measured for both speed 1 and speed 2.
Presentation slides were put together, edited and resent out to all members for them to practice during the night.
Final report was submitted to BBVista.
Planned to meet at main building at 9am so that we could do a couple of run throughs of our presentation as a whole group, time ourselves and provide last minute feedback to members.

Deadlines
June 3rd Sunday 2 pm - Members finish and send final report and slides to every member
June 3rd Sunday 5pm - MEETING
June 4th Monday - MEETING - TBA
June 4th Monday - Slides need to be uploaded to BBVista
June 7th Thursday - Final Report Submitted to BBVista Before Class

June 7th Presentation - MEM 

Week 8

This week we completed our second round of the tests with the two models. On the windbreaker model, which is the one with a row of shrubs planted next to the field, we increased the height of the shrubs to exactly the height of the crops and higher than the height of the crops. On the Fabric wall model, we did the tests by adding another layer of jute around the model.

Since our Final Report is due next week, we broke down the components among the team members:
Heidi – Introduction
Jon and Achira – Technical Activties
Ami – Results
Anushree – Future work

Meeting Minutes – 24th May 2012
Things that need to be done:


• Buy an anemometer
• Make sure you have some type of professional attire for the presentation
• We should explain how our project solution takes into consideration people, prosperity, planet, and performance for sustainability
• Meeting (anushree, achira, ami)
• Achira will email ami, heidi and Jon about the meeting
• Presentation due june 4th

• Final report due june 10th 


Here's a summary of the lecture for anybody interested.We will consider the following points for the presentation.


• Do we need visuals to explain things better?
• Do not just read off the slides
• Know what's coming next in the presentation slides
• Use slide master
• Use minimal amount of words
• Use slide numbers
• Possibly use progress bar
• Rehearse the presentation
• Have a professional appearance and posture
• Pass around the clicker
• Introduce the next person presenting
• 10 minute presentation and 3 minutes for answering questions
• Intro, body, conclusion
• Make sure you have a back up of any videos on the slides
• Make sure all slides are connected in content and flow

Meeting Minutes – 29th May 2012

So here is what we did in the meeting:
1) Finished the tests: We did the tests with the cotton model, with the barrier as tall as the rice crops and with the barrier taller than the rice crops.
2) Final Report:
So for the final report, the parts are:
   Abstract
  Introduction
  Technical Activities
  Results
  Future Work
  References
So Heidi has taken Introduction, Anushree has taken Future Work, Achira and Jon have the Technical Activities and Ami has the References part. Abstract and References will be done as a group.
We will get our parts for the project ready by Sunday with a few slides on it so that we can submit them on Monday. We can meet up again to modify the slides and make them better later.

Feasibility Report

Download Feasibility Report Below:

Week 7

21th May 2012 - Group Meeting 03

Since our Feasibility report is due this week, we met up to decide what sections we wanted and how we would split the work between all five of us.

Feasibility report breakdown

1. Introduction and Purpose of the Report == Heidi

2. Describe the Models - Differentiate between them == Heidi

3. Experimental - Calculation / Results  == Jon

4. Budget - Real life for each scenario - include shrub research and jute research alternate == Achira and Anushree

5. Conclusion == Ami

Finish Sections Properly and send to Anushree by Wednesday 12 (Midnight)

20th May 2012 - Group Meeting 02

We cut the rice crops to 15 cm - (ACHIRAS BOOK).

And ran tests to see how much the pipe cleaner moved/bent when a. the fan speed was increased and b. when the distance from the fan and the field was increased. This was done for all three scenarios - 

a test scene - with no blocking of the rice crops

the jute wall model

and the shrubs model.

18th May 2012 - Group Meeting 01

Questions to ask visitor 

1. What kind of trees/shrub goes around in that area- how high are they

2. How strong the winds are in the area.

3. Which one of the options does he think will work better 

4. Materials/fibers commonly used in Thailand (to replace with jute)

5. Inclination of fields - our model reasonable?

6. How tall do rice crops grow?

Things to bring tomorrow
- Camera
- Fan
- Ruler

Next Meeting at Sunday 2pm

17th May 2012 - Lab Meeting

Decide scale ratio - Model to Original
Define Variables
Decide on Tests
Add tape/tab/cotton onto rice stalk (pipe cleaners) if not enough bending

The worst wind direction is ...
the distance from bush.tree at which it stops being effective is...
we need x- layers of this .....
one side is wayy more effective than this

Scale ratio
Use Rice stalk as reference
Rice stalk height - 7.5 cm

Aim: What do we want to learn - to see how effective each solution is by testing the angle and distance that the rice stalk bends to find the effectiveness of each solution.


Variable
1. Different Shrub/jute fence heights at rice crop reference
2. Wind speed/ strength
3. Thickness of Jute material
4. Wind Direction
5. Distance from barrier to the plant

Controlled Parameter
1. Height of Rice Stalk
2. Inclination
3. Distance between each rice crop
4. Camera angle
5. Location of fan
6. Distance from fan to models

Dependent variable 
1. Distance moved (relative to stick/reference point - how much have they bent)
2. Angle


Control
Model with just the pipe cleaners acting as rice crops on the inclined slope.

What can we change about your solution (some parameter - height of fence/density of trees)

Research Questions
How far away can you be from the barrier until its effects are diminished.
How high can wind speed get until effects are diminished

- Try and find relationships (e.g. effective as long as wind speed stays under...)

Charts
wind speed vs average bend (maybe for each row)
height vs effective distance

Than we can answer our questions.

Week 6

This week we turned all our solutions into models. To get a better idea of the possible solutions, we made two models: one with a windbreaker system with shrubs and the other one with the jute around it.


The Shrub Model:
For this model, cotton balls were used to substitute the shrubs. For the rice crops, pipe cleaners were used.


The Jute Model:
For the jute model, the jute was ordered from amazon and for the bamboo sticks, Popsicle sticks were used. Even in this model, the rice crops were substituted by pipe cleaners.


Both the models will be tested at various wind speeds with the help of a fan and an anemometer.


Further research was done into the options for the trees and shrubs to be used in the windbreaker system.




10th May Engineering Lab Update 

Move fan from left right top bottom

rice - pipe cleaner - tape on paper, dandelions? electrical wire.

measure bend. take pictures with camera in the same spot.

see how much they bend with and without system.

bougainvillea bushes

call garden center to find out about tall shrubs

call mc master-carr

order jute - achira (2 types)

cotton cvs- or get miniature plastic trees

jon- talked to wire people - said look on the website alot of the wires will bend - will talk again

11th May Meeting Update 

Buying List

CVS - Cotton, Popsicle sticks, String

KOP - Fluffy Streamers (to act as trees), Small Fan, zip

Barnes and Nobles - Boxes

Online Order - 1 type of Jute

Pipe Cleaners - Anywhere...

Mud - From on campus- Ask Professer about condition of soil during farming..

Anemometer- ask professor.

Things to do

Fluid dynamics websites - ask professor.
Jon - Find out details and buy wire asap
Achira, Amy and Anushree and Hiedi - Find shrubs and make list of nutrients its takes away from the soil, optimum conditions for growth and survival, easily found in Thailand or not, length and width the shrub grows to, visual appearance and external benefits if [RESEARCH] etc, Work on Model

Ideas Discussed 
Zip for net door to allow entry and exit out of field area.


To Find
- Wind speed ? Use - http://www.tmd.go.th/en/storm_tracking.php (50-75k/hr)
- Slope incline?
- Wires?
- Mud type/Fertilizers used.....
- Sunlight - How Long/ Light Intensity


16th May Meeting Update 
- Worked on Model
- Research on Shrubs and Trees - needs to be posted on blog


http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/oc/freepubs/pdf/OF-38.pdf   
Bougainvillea information

Week 5

In this weeks meeting we discussed about possible models to test our solutions on.

1.Wind Storm affect can be synthesized by the fan.
2. Anemometer to measure wind speed given off by the fan
3. Rice field area can be substituted by a cardboard box.

One of the problems we faced was to come up a alternate for the rice crops. Possible substitutes were paper (cut out) for the rice and toothpick/drinking straw for the stalk.

Since we will be testing our solutions we also need to buy jute (this will be included in our budget).
More details will be discussed during lab with the rest of the members and the professor and Ken (TA).

Week 4

This week was a bit challenging as we had to correct our mistakes from our design proposal. The meeting held this week was to modify and improve the needs, the initial concepts and budget of our design proposal. In addition to the wind break, we have developed one other solution which is a net house. Our budget for each solution was estimated by estimating the total cost of planting trees as well as the total length of how much jute that will be used. As of our next step is working towards finding which option will be best in the end, financially and sustainability wise.