Team:Cornell/testing/notebook/drylab/2

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Today was a huge discussion day, in which we continued our previous discussion on fluid flow through the system. Last time, we leaned toward a discrete system because it would cut energy costs due to less activity. However, Dylan told us today that discrete flow would not work because the culture needs to maintain steady state. According to the equations and graphs he drew on the whiteboard, discrete flow would not satisfy this requirement. Any deviation from steady state would add noise to the electrical output from bacteria, rendering the biosensor inaccurate.

Still, Maneesh and Dylan tried to design a discrete system that would work. A programmable fish food dispenser would periodically release food into the bioreactor that held the bacterial culture. And a microcontroller would be used to activate the water pump. However, the issue of maintaining steady state still lingered.

On the whiteboard, we also came up with two other designs--a passive gravity fed system and a continuous model. For continuous flow, pumps would be constantly churning food and water into the bioreactor. The disadvantages are incredibly low flow rates (meaning higher-end machines) and greatest power consumption.

In the passive system, food and water input from above the water level would flow down into the bioreactor. This design allowed for continuous flow and least energy consumption. However, the bulk of this system would need to be strictly underwater, so we would have to look into waterproofing.

#filtration #flow #gravity

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