ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

FUTURE IMPROVEMENTS: 1) Upgrade the plastic liner to a more durable material.

2) Upgrade tow cable and/or drive pulley.

3) Place windows in the tank walls to allow in water visibility.

4) Upgrade the plywood panels (walls) to sheet metal panels

or glass panels

5) Improve rail mounting to tank

SELECTED TANK DESIGN: • 3/8 in (9.525 mm) thick, 2” SQ. (5.080 cm) Angle iron

• 1/4 in (6.350 mm) thick, 2” SQ. (5.080 cm) Angle iron

• 3/4 in (19.050 mm) thick Plywood

• 16 feet (4.877 m) long 80/20 Aluminum

• 3/4 hp (559.270 w) Motor

• 1/16 in (1.588 mm) diameter Aircraft Cable

• 6 in (15.240 cm) diameter Pulleys

Model of Tank Assemble Design

Picture of Actual Tow Tank

ANALYSIS OF TANK:

From Left to Right: Shauna Traxler (ME), Hope Alm (ME),

Andres Santizo Matheu (ISE), Tim Buckner (ME), and William Lentlie (ME)

Model of Cart Design

ANSYS Results for Stresses

The ANSYS analysis was done using

a hydrostatic force assuming the

tank was completely full. The tank

wall was supported on the side

edges as well as the bottom faces.

Meshing was done using a body

mesh of 0.50 in (1.27 cm). Stresses,

as well as total deflection were

calculated. Structurally the tank has

a factor safety of 20 with a yield

strength of 50 ksi (345 Mpa). The

tank also has a factor of safety of 9

for deflection, with an acceptable

deflection of 0.03125 in (7.94e-4 m).

The next analysis was done to

account for outside forces acting on

the tank walls. A point load of 200 lbf

(889.64 N) acting in the same

direction as the water was applied to

the weakest point of the static

analysis. Results showed that the

tank does not yield and the design

was acceptable.

PROJECT OUTCOME: CONCEPT SELECTION:

BRAINSTORM: Proposed concepts for the tank materials.

• Wood structure and wood panels

• Steel structure and wood panels

• Steel structure and steel panels

Proposed concepts for rails and cart

• Angle iron rails and skate bearings

• 80/20 linear motion system

• Machined bottom supported rail

CONCEPT EVALUATION: A table was created to evaluate each set of concepts. Every concept was used as datum

and compared to all other possibilities. The options where ranked taking into consideration

and giving a different weight to every stake holder.

ENGINEER SPECS OF TANK: • Tanks dimensions: 16 feet (4.877 m) long, 2.5 feet (0.762

m) wide, and 2 feet (0.610 m) high.

• Max cart towing velocity: 3.21 ± 0.10 ft/s (0.950 ± 0.025

m/s)

• Max volume of water: 599 US gallons (2,265 L)

• 2 modular pieces, capable of being disassembled,

moved, and reassembled by 2 people

Picture of Actual Cart

OBJECTIVE:

The objective of the project was to build a small scaled version of tethered hydrofoil to compare with a simulation provided by Dr. Mario Gomes in MATLAB. Team P12462’s goal was to create a

tow tank capable of moving a platform at a constant specified speed over the top of a stationary body of water in order to recreate a river flow passing over a hydrofoil.

ANSYS Results for Deflection

Example of specification verification

Cart speed needed to be tested to confirm accuracy of LabVIEW control.

Effective Pulley Diameter was an input usedto match measured speeds to

expected speeds.

0.92

0.93

0.94

0.95

0.96

0.97

0.98

0.99

13 13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4

Sp

eed

[m

/s]

Effective Pulley Diameter [cm]

Cart Speed Variation

Measured Speed [m/s]

Expected Speed [m/s]