We finally were able to get a window this Saturday where we could test our system for a few hours without the threat of rain, and the test did not disappoint!
Kyle, Travis and I got to the lab at 930 this morning and began setting up the circuit. By 10 we were ready to go and turned on the two transformers set up in parallel. We immediately tested voltages around the system and were confident that the system was working the way we expected.
We proceeded to use our thermometer to test surface temperatures at 7 different locations every 30 mins. We also got temperature readings every 30 mins at spots on the normal asphalt, and a darker shade of asphalt so as to have control temperatures to compare our results too. We noticed a slight heating but it was hard to tell what was really going on.
Charlie came by and helped us take some more readings and then Nelson Gibson, a former student of our mentor showed up around 1215 with his infrared camera and took pictures of our system after it had been on for a little over 2 hours.
The pictures showed us that yes, our system is creating heat along the wire paths. Unfortunately, it also showed that our triplet wires were not producing much heat, and that the heat was not spreading very far from the wires. Nevertheless, the information these pictures will provide will be very valuable and will help us decide where we go from here. We would like to thank Nelson very much for donating his time and services to our team!
After the test was concluded, the team members on the site decided we did not want to completly rip up the system as it had provided us with some good data and might still be of use to us later. We opted to rip up the bottom 4th of the system as it was in bad shape, and then cover the remainder of the system with a layer of sealcoat. The parking space is now in good enough shape that we are confident people can park on it and walk on it without fear of tripping or puncturing a tire.
Today's test was a big success and has given us lots of good information on how to proceed in the future. Next semester we aim to lay down a better version of the system based on the information we learned throughout this semester so we can test during the winter months next school year.
Check out the Team SnowMelt website for thermal images from the tests we ran today. Kyle should be posting them soon!
~Jon
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment