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Contents
XE500 – engineering systems module introduction
For this module we have to work in groups to come up with a solution to plastic pollution in rivers or oceans. For my group we started by delegating tasks, of which I was tasked with concepts.
Before starting the concepts, I worked on context and systems.
Here is the parts that I wrote:
Context
Currently there are tens of millions of plastic pieces that have been disposed into the waters of the world each day. This is harming marine life and polluting our waters, making them hazardous to everything. This system is to be used to collect different types of plastics from large bodies of water. The system will perform in oceans, seas and/or rivers.
Systems
- Collection system – to gather plastic that the system finds in the river
- Identification system – to identify the plastics in the river
- Motion system/ propellers or thruster – this is so the system moves or has a way of moving. The motion system could also be a person moving or swimming with the system.
- Disposal system – a way of releasing plastic waste so that it can be pulled out of the ocean
- Submersion system – a way for the system to go under water if necessary. May not be as needed since we are to use the system in rivers and not the oceans.
- Lighting system – this may be needed to help identify objects and creatures in the ocean. May not be needed as we will be in rivers which are not as affected by light.
- If the system is not to be used in the water, then an extension or suction system may be needed.
- Compacting system – this could be good to have as this would allow for more plastic to be collected by one system before having to dispose of the waste.
- Storage system – this can be used to hold and store the plastic that is collected. A potential could be an extension bag which opens on the exterior of the system. This would allow for even more storage and collection. This can even be further enhanced if you have multiple on the system. This would be limited by the weight limit and the power of the overall system.
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Concepts
Here are some photos of concepts that I made. I aim to make some CAD models and technical drawings for these concepts.
Concept 1:
This design works by identifying plastics using a waterproof camera. It moves through the use off thrusters and rotates with fins. This design also has propellers to allow the system to submerge and change its depth. Because we are focusing on rivers, this may not be necessary as they may not be deep enough to need a submersion system. This design filters the plastic internally and expels the water through the same entrance.
Concept 2:
This system design works in a similar way to concept 1 in that it moves and can change its depth through thrusters and propellers. This design collects the plastic pollution through arms and storing this in a container at the rear of the system. An identification system would be needed to ensure it doesn’t grab marine life.
Concept 3:
Concept 3 is a very different design and functions differently. instead of being remotely controlled and moved, the system is manually dropped into the water at the position you want it to be. once it is low enough and near plastic, the system will open up and suck the plastic inside of it. Once the device is full or there is no more plastic to be collected, thrusters on the top and bottom of the system will change the systems depth. This device may not need an identification system as there are cameras on the exterior which you
can look into the water. For this system you will act as the eyes and you will judge what is plastic and what is not.
Concept 5:
Here is my 4th concept. It is labelled as concept 5 because concept 4 was drawn up my another team member. This system function very differently to the others as it doesn’t move and is placed on the river banks. The idea is that workers place the tubes of the system into the river. The system then sucks up the plastic through the tubes and water is dispensed back out into the river.
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Improved concepts
Later into the module, I went back and decided to improve on my concepts using the skills that I learnt (on skill learning page) involving line work and using colour. For these improvements I decided that I would improve two by hand and the other two digitally. Due to time constraints because of the final deadline, these concepts were not improved to there full potential. If I had the time I would have redrawn the concepts fully so that they were dimensionally accurate and had shading, shadows, blended colouring and I would also improved upon the labelling so that they are much easier to read and more understandable. Below are photos of the hand drawn improved concepts:
For the digital concepts I used a program called Krita. I decided to use this program because I have used it before and I have an understanding on how it functions and how I can use it to draw. An alternative would have been to use a program such as photoshop or Inkscape. These would have been good to use however I don’t currently have knowledge in these programs. Because of this it may have taken me longer and I may have had to leave the concepts as simple sketches due to time constraints.
Here is a link to Krita’s main page and manual page:
https://docs.krita.org/en/index.html
Below are the digitally improved concepts that I made:
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Justification of concepts:
Justification for concepts to be used in rivers
Concept 1: This concept is a small remote-controlled device which filters plastic that it moves over. Because of its small size it would be suitable for any water environment, but it would be more suitable for rivers because larger macro plastics are in the ocean which the concept may not be able to collect, making it less effective at its task.
Concept 2: This system has long arms which it uses to collect the plastics. The plastics, once grabbed by the arms, and contained in the storage at the back. This system does have capability to move in the water, however, because of the increased size it may not be as suitable for rivers. On the other hand, the system doesn’t have to be used in the river. This device could be positioned on the bank of the river and still be capable of grabbing the plastics because of the long reaching arms.
Concept 3: This concept is good for rivers because it can be deployed in any location, chosen by the user. Furthermore, the system only collects the plastics, disposal and identification is completed outside of the water by people. This would be done by someone either on a boat or, more likely, on the bank of the river.
Concept 5: This concept is good for rivers because it functions outside of water and needs the use of people to function as intended. It works by being placed on the bank of a river and then having its tubes be placed into the water in areas with plastic. These tubes then suck up the plastic and filter it with the water being disposed back into the river.
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Ethical issues and consequences to people and society in the future
After drawing up the concepts and justifying them I spoke with my group about the next tasks that were to be completed. I was tasked with writing up about ethical issues and consequences it would have on people and society in the future.
Below is what I wrote:
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Ethical issues and consequences to people and society in the future
Remove law stuff – make it more about the ethics instead of laws and legislations
Effect on people – write about the positives as well as negatives
Focus on marine life and rivers
Ethical issues with prevention of littering: an ethical issue is that the government is not doing enough to stop littering or the disposal of waste into rivers. This is a problem because without laws and legislations in place a continuous flow of plastic would be dumped into the river, thus the problem will never be solved. Marine life will still be harmed and if it is not carefully managed by the government then the problem could get worse, making people more unhappy.
Effect on people in the future: if laws and legislations are not put in place then the waste could eventually become so hazardous you cannot live around the area, impacting the health of people and it may make them relocate.
Positive effect on people: The environment will be cleaner if people stop littering which can increase people’s mental health and wellbeing. Penarthview.co.uk says that more than 55% of Welsh responders feel angry from seeing plastic/litter.
https://penarthview.co.uk/new-research-reveals-mental-health-toll-of-plastic-pollution-in-wales/
Ethical issue with placing systems in rivers: an ethical issue is placing systems in rivers. This could be an issue because, if not done correctly or used properly, it can harm the marine life in the river. This could also be an ethical issue because people may see it as an eyesore, you could kill marine life which can be viewed as bad, and it could impact how people live.
Effect on people and society in the future: an example is the system could end up blocking water from going to a location which people may collect from. If it is preventing people from gathering and collecting, it could cause them to starve and impact how they live. It could put their lives in danger.
Positive effect to people: Placing the system in the river could dramatically increase the quality of the water, making it healthier for people and the marine life. Once the plastic is cleared the river would become much more appealing to people and fishers could go back there and fish again. The plastic could also be used to make other products or to produce income, which would much benefit the local communities.
Ethical issues with plastic in rivers: An ethical issue with plastic waste being in rivers is that it’s taking peoples jobs. Fishers that work up and down the rivers can no longer fish and have had to resort to plastic collecting because all the fish are dying from the toxic environment. This is an ethical issue because fisher’s income is being impacted. Less species is in the river and the plastic keeps killing them.
Ethical issues with taking plastic out: Fishers who are now collecting plastic from the river to earn money may not want the plastic to be removed and may want a continuous flow of disposal and removal of plastic waste in the river. This is an ethical issue because, for example, if we remove all waste from the river, these fishers won’t have any plastic to remove. They could resort back to fishing however, most of the marine life may be killed off or not edible because of toxic waste. This ultimately would leave them to have no job at all and must find one somewhere else.
Positive effect on people: If the plastic removed, people may be able to go back to fishing, earning money and doing the job they originally wanted to do.
Ethical issue with using the river: An ethical issue is using the river. This can be an issue because it may be impeding or preventing others from using the river. This could also be an issue because it may prevent factories and facilities along the river from disposing of there waste, potentially affecting their businesses.
Effect on people and society in the future: preventing the use of the river could prevent the locals from disposing of their waste, potentially impacting their health, and bringing the toxic waste onto the land.
Positive effect on people: Using the river for a period of time would allow for the removal of waste in the river, this would make the river less toxic and hazardous. The river would be safer, and locals will overall be healthier.
Ethical issue with power usage and resources: An ethical issue is whether the amount of energy and resources the system uses. If it does, and the country has a limited amount and the system uses lots of it, then it is impacting the amount that others local can have.
Effect on people and society in the future: This can impact how they live, potentially causing them to struggle in life or even prevent them from working or making a living. It could also stop them from getting essentials and going places.
Positive effect on people: Collected waste could be used do produce more materials and resources, allowing more resources for locals. It may also increase the quality of current energy and resources, overall improving people’s lives.
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For the presentation I also added a section which described how ethics applies to us and how it is important to take into consideration.
Here is what I wrote:
It is important that we take into consideration ethics. Ethics applies to our system because it could potentially impact how people live or even potentially be dangerous to them. Society also has expectations of us to act in a particular way. If we don’t and the system doesn’t act correctly it can impact people dramatically, potentially putting us at financial risk
We must ensure that accurate, our calculations and science backing them need to be correct to prevent failures in measurements and the use of the machine.
We must not deceive locals and must be honest with them. Not doing so could cause them injury or impact their way of life. We must be respectful and responsible when undergoing this project.
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Pressure rating work
Near the end of this module I was asked by the group to research into pressure ratings. It is important to know the pressure rating and the allowable pressure because it will prevent the pipe from breaking or being damaged due to people pressurizing it too much.
Because our pipe was a galvanized steel I looked into steel pressure ratings. Here is a graph from engineeringtoolbox.com that I used in conjunction with their table to find what the pressure rating.
Engineering ToolBox, (2003). Stainless Steel Pipes – Allowable Pressure vs. Schedule and Size. [online] Available at: https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/stainless-steel-pipes-pressure-ratings-d_346.html [06.05.2022].
From this I was able to find that the maximum allowable pressure rating for our pipe was about 771 psig but this varies dependant on the temperature of the water. I was unable to find an exact value as our pipe tapers and changes in diameter so I only found the maximum.
I was also asked to research into copper and galvanized steel to see how long they could last and I was also asked to look into testing methods. I found that copper lasted for about 70-80 years and the galvanized steel lasted between 34-170 years. we opted to not use copper because it has been know to be stolen.
Steel information: https://www.galvanizing.org.uk/durability-of-galvanizing/#:~:text=A%20key%20benefit%20of%20using,years%20of%20protection%20for%20steel.
Copper information: https://www.restaurantnorman.com/how-long-does-it-take-for-salt-water-to-corrode-copper/
Testing methods:
Hydrostatic testing – fills a portion of the pipeline with water and pressurizing the pipeline.
Pneumatic testing – more dangerous as it contains more energy. Uses air to find out the structural integrity of the pipe. Can also be done with nitrogen
Here are some links that I used:
Pressure test procedures by SLAC national accelerator laboratory was used to find testing methods. https://www-group.slac.stanford.edu/
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Ethics page improvement
For the formative assessments and the final presentation I was tasked with writing up about ethics and producing a slide for this. Below is the original page that I made:
For this version I had added images of the ethics that I had written and then I had summarized it on the page as well. This made the page look very wordy and hard for the viewers to understand. Also, it ended up having repeating writing which was unnecessary.
Here is an image of the final presentation slide of the ethics:
I improved the slide by removing the majority of the writing and just leaving a summarised version on. This was a lot better as there wasn’t as much writing, there was no repeats and it was a lot cleaner. Because of the nature of this topic, there was always going to be a lot of writing, so minimising it is important as it makes it easier for the readers and speakers to understand.
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Final presentation
Below is the presentation that our group made for the module. For this presentation we all made our own pages which consisted with our own work. I made the pressure ratings and testing methods page, along with a page consisting of the concepts I made. I also made the page about ethics.
Click here to download and view: Final Presentation
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Final presentation videos
Here are 3 videos of the final presentation that we did. For my part I spoke about all concepts including ones i didnt personally design, the pressure rating and testing methods, and I spoke a bit about ethics.
Part 1 video
Part 2 video
Part 3 video
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Video upload issue
The video recording of the presentation was way to big to be uploaded to this website. There is a limit of 50 megabytes but the video was originally 600 megabytes. To solve this issue I had to compress the file. To compress the file I used a couple free compression website. I had to use multiple because the compression didn’t reduce the file size to under 50 megabytes. Below are the compression websites I used:
https://www.wecompress.com/en/
https://www.freeconvert.com/video-compressor
https://www.media.io/video-compressor.html
I mainly used Clideo.com because this free compression site would manage to retain the quality of the video. Clideo.com also has many other capabilities such as cutting and resizing videos.
Once I had compress the file as far as it could be compress, I noticed it was still over 100 megabytes and still would not be able to be uploaded. Because of this I decide to use hitfilms express (link here: https://fxhome.com/product/hitfilm-express) to split the video into three parts. I then downloaded these parts separately onto my computer. Because I had edited the videos they had returned to there original size, each of them were roughly 200 megabytes. Because of this I compressed them again through clideo.com. I managed to get each of the parts under the 50 megabyte limit and I was able to upload the videos.
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