Laminar Flow Fountain - Tangential Input

Ok, here is what I am planning for the tangential input. I have a small drill press in my laboratory that I used to drill the hole tangential to the interior wall.

Laminar Flow Fountain - Brass Nozzle Insert

So I finally was able to get into my little workshop and setup the machinary to insert the brass nozzle into the prototype laminar nozzle.

Just to recap for the rest of us. I had a manufacturing company that I know make this fabulous brass nozzle for me. I finally got the parts last week and have been itching to get to use them but life has gotten in the way. I've been working on this project for about 1.5 months and have had some pretty steady progress, but this nozzle really takes the design to the next level.

BEFORE

Here is the before pictures of the nozzle WITHOUT the brass nozzle insert.
Notice the water veins in it that are coming right out of the exit? They disappear as the water travels on, but it adds to the turbulence and if there is enough flow the water will begin to break up.

AFTER

Here are the pictures with the brass nozzle insert. This is a low flow rate, but it is comparable to the flow rate in the previous pictures.

This is my favorite picture notice the ASSESENCE of the water viens!!! Absolutely CRYSTAL CLEAR LAMINAR FLOW!

NEXT UP!

1. Work on building a tangential inlet.
   
1. It is my belief that if I add the tangential input I will be able to increase the range without the water breaking up to about 4 times greater than what it currently is.
   
2. Continue to work on the electronics to cut and light the nozzle
3. When parts arrive, assemble the 1st build.
1. 1st build includes (August 12th)
   
1. 1 Laminar flow nozzle
2. Cutter mechanism
3. Low Pass filter
4. Pump
5. LED Light source
6. Fiber Optics
   
4. Test 1st build
5. Evaluate and Redesign as needed
   

Laminar Flow Fountain by Mario

So, I've made some new friends on this journey to the laminar fountain! I am proud to introduce you to Mario the Magician. He really is a magician in more ways than one! First it really is his career in Switzerland, but more importantly he is a WIZARD with laminar flow fountains!

With his permission, I've uploaded a video of his fountain. He has done a remarkable job, and I just can't believe the quality of his fountain. The water doesn't have a imperfection in it!!! FLAWLESS COMPLETELY FLAWLESS!!!!!!

Ok, so he built a fountain that shoots out a prefectly clear stream of water without a flaw in it...SO WHAT!

Well, not only did he built the fountain, but he also built the electronics from stratch, and programmed it all from stratch all while learning everything he could about the fountains online!!!!!

I am continuously astounded by his ingenuity and BRILLIANCE.

This video shows the flow from the fountain and its different modes. I can't say enough about MARIO! Thanks for sharing Mario!

MARIO THE MAGICIAN

Brass Nozzle - Exit Orifice

I got my 0.5" Brass Nozzle from my manufacturer today. They look great! I'm very impressed with the quality. The internal diameter is 0.5" the external diameter is 1". The thickness is .177"

The internal edge is very sharp and could cut your finger. I'm sure that this will do perform well. I can't wait to test it, but I'm still waiting on some other parts.

THE NOZZLE

Ok, so here is how the nozzle will look. I will post more later.

Now it's later and I have a minute. This is the nozzle that I am designing. The principle is basic. The water will enter into the tube tangentially into the nozzle chamber where it will swirl around until it gets to the sponge (not shown in picture above). The sponge will break up the flow and disorganized the flow. The sponge is juxtaposition to the straws, so the water will flow through the straws (shown as red in picture above). Once it exists the straws the water will be moving at the same speed. It will gather together in an open chamber before shooting through the brass exit nozzle. Once it leaves the brass exit nozzle it will be clear and beautiful. Then if the cutter mechanism is open the water will exit the top. If the water is being cut, the flow will continue through the side of the nozzle and back into the water system.

It's simple in theory! =) Now I just need to build it and make the water behave like I think it should behave.

A SPECIAL THANKS TO MARIO AND ZACHARY FOR HELPING ME WITH THE CRUCIAL SECTIONS OF THE DESIGN.

Underwater Tests

So a very smart friend of mine brought up the point of the mechanism working underwater. I didn't know. So I had to find out.

Test
Cutter Mechanism Underwater test

Objective:

To observe whether the mechanism will work in an underwater environment.

Introduction:

The cutter mechanism is going to be used in order to deflect the water from the air to the underwater piping system giving humans the illusion that the water is jumping. Each nozzle will be timed in such a way that the water will appear to be jumping or leaping from place to place.

In order to cut the water the Cutter mechanism will push and pull a plate in from of the orifice in order to deflect.

We must be certain that water will not affect the mechanism. The mechanism must be able to cutter the water in either a partially or fully submerged environment. This test is designed to find out if the water will cause any problems. We are particularly concern with the solenoids and how they will perform.

Setup
The setup for the cutter mechanism is the same as the setup in other cutter mechanism tests with the small addition on waterproofing. I applied a liberal amount of hot glue to the connections and any point that might have a leak.

I filled a 5 gallon bucket with a small amount of water just enough to cover the mechanism.

Results

The cutter mechanism was suciffiently waterproofed and I was able to contain the magic smoke. The cutter operated as designed.

The video below show the results.



Conclusion

The cutter mechanism performed well underwater. The proof of concept was succesful and the mechanism will be introduced into the design.

The mechanism was observed to be a bit slow moving from position to position, but has not be confirmed. However, the majority of the drag is probably due to the vertical plate. The Laminar Nozzle will have a significantly reduced drag since, the cutter mechanism will have a U-channel instead of an L-bracket. This should alleviate any drag induced problems.

Jumping Laminar Jets

So a special thanks to my friends who listened to me to help me put together this spreadsheet with all the information about the Jumping Laminar Jets. A special mention to Will for building the spreadsheet for me! For those who aren't fluent in geekspeak what this spreadsheet tells us that it doesn't tell you is how height and far the jumping laminar jets will go based on a number of key numbers.

First column
Flow Rate: This means how much water will flow through an area in a certain amount of time. This is measured in Gallons/Min. It's like how fast you would be going if you were a liquid.

Second column
Flow Rate: Same as above but just converted into different units.

Third column
Angle: This is an important one! Once we build this water fountain we will mount the nozzles at these angles

Fourth and Fifth column
Diameter and Area: The diameter is the diameter of the outlet for the water. Subsequently, the area is the calculated area for the water outlet.

Sixth column
This one is important too. This is the amount of nozzles you can have.

Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth
Velocities. The Seventh column is the total velocity, and the Eighth and Ninth are the component velocities (velocity in the horizontal and vertical directions).

Tenth, Eleventh and Twelfth
Time in the air, Height, and Distance. Pretty self explanatory.

Geekspeak:

It is all based on two principles. First, is flow in must be equal to flow out, Qin = Qout. This obviously simple equation in fact states a lot. From this equation we are able to get the exit velocity of the water because we know what the area is from whence the water is leaving. =)

Simply.

Q=v*A

solving for v

v=Q/A (Eq 1)

so Eq 1 gives us the velocity of the water leaving the nozzle. From there we can treat this like a particle motion problem. Or

h = 1/2*g*t^2 +vy*t+ho (Eq 2)

Since we are going to be putting these nozzles on an angle the velocity that we obtained from Eq 1 isn't the velocity in vo. We need to adjust the velocity for the different angles. So we need to compute the vy (velocity in the y or vertical direction).

vy = vo sin (theta)

knowing that we can calculate the total time the water is in the air. Using Eq 2 we know that the water starts from ground and ends up at the same level (ground). So h=ho = 0. Rearranging Eq 2 and solving for t you get.

t = 2*vy/g Eq 3

Using the answer from Eq 3 and subsituting it back into Eq 2 we can find the height the water will travel.

To find the distance we need one other equation. Distance = Rate * Time

or

D = vx * t

where vx = vo cos(theta) or the velocity in the horizontal direction.

Again, thanks to those who helped me with this!

Cutter Mechanism Design

Ok, it's pretty late and I need to get to bed so that I can get up for work tomorrow, but I thought I would as least throw these images up. I'll edit this post tomorrow, and give a full description..

My Desires for the Final Product

Solenoid Cutter Mechanism Video

Solenoid Cutter Mechanism

Since I have my solenoids working properly I started working on the cutter mechanism. Solenoids are really neat mechanisms and if it weren't for them generating A LOT of heat I wouldn't even have to design a mechanism. But they do, so I will!

The purpose of this mechanism is to allow me to keep the cutter open or closed for ANY amount of time. I started thinking of all these neat mechanisms that would allow me to latch the solenoid. These were pretty complex but eventually it got more and more simple. Eventually it came down to this design.

The figure below show the solenoids in the starting position. You can see that the solenoid plungers don't have any magnets attached to them or anything. The magnets are on the brackets at the end. The solenoid at the top is in the on postion, meaning the current is running through it to attract the plunger and retract it. The bottom solenoid is in the off position. I don't have a representation of a hole in this experiment but imagine that the hole is just to the right of the bracket in the middle.

In order to cutter the water the bottom solenoid will turn on, but just for a moment (200 ms). Once the cutter mechanism has moved to the "closed position" (see figure below) the upper solenoid engages the magnets and the valve is now closed and all current is off.


In order to move the cutter mechanism basck to the start the top solenoid is turned on and the entire process starts over again.

I can't say that this is the exact design that I am going to use yet. I still have a few other ideas that I have before I commit to one design, but so far I am pleased with these results. So I only run current through it to move the mechanism once it arrives at its destination the current turns off and remains in the position until the next solenoid is turned on. That means no excess heat, and remember HEAT is the enemy in electronics.

Solenoid Tests

I won’t detail the setup exactly in this post, but I just received my solenoids from Goldmine Electronics and they are awesome. Thanks to Zachary for pointing me in the right direction on that one. I’ve never played around with solenoids, and they are very basic, but what can you expect when you only pay $0.99 for each solenoid. How do solenoids work? Well, when you run current through a wire you get a magnet field. This magnetic field circles around the wire. When you wrap the wire in a coil you get a stronger magnetic field! Wrap it enough times and run enough current through it you can get a large enough field to attract an iron core plunger. When the current turns on the plunger is attracted and retracts. When the current turns off a spring returns the plunger back to its original position. That’s the basics of a solenoid.

Drawbacks:

Solenoids need a large current to run through it in order to create a large enough magnetic field. Since nothing is a 100% efficient you get a lot of HEAT. Heat is the enemy in electronics. If things get too hot things burn up and solenoids are no exception. So you can only run them for about 25% of the time and they have to rest for 75%. That is going to make it difficult for the cutter mechanism. Since I want to be able to keep everything open or cut the water at ANY given time, I will have to think of a clever mechanism that will hold the cutter in its proper place one the solenoid have moved it to its desired position.

Laminar Flow Leapfrog Fountain

I went to Disney World when I was 15 years old with my family. While we were there we visited the Epcot center. We were walking around looking at the attractions when we came across this very unique fountain. This fountain would shoot a jet of water about 4 feet long and where it landed another jet would shoot another jet of water making it appear as the water was jumping around. I was fascinated with the fountain and probably played with it for an hour.

Ever since I saw that fountain I always wanted one. Now I'm in the position where I can make my own. I thought that it would be easy. I thought I could tie it into my sprinkler system and use sprinkler valves to make it jump. NOOOOOOOO, DISNEY would never make it that simple. As I started to look into the fountain and how I would build it I came across some very interesting information. The nozzles that they used weren't your typical nozzle that just shoots water. They are special nozzles. These nozzles take the turbulent flow and turns it into a laminar flow. For those that don't speak geekspeak, the nozzle takes the water and organizes it puts it back together so that the water is all traveling at the same speed! This "organization" produces a crystal clear stream throughout the entire arc. If you are good enough you can't even tell that the water is moving because the entire arc looks the same.

So I've done my research and read through a dozen different patents on the laminar flow nozzles. I've been working on a way to make your own laminar nozzle. So the black thing in the picture that is shooting out the water is my laminar nozzle. I've been working on this for about 2 weeks now, and have had some pretty good results. Nothing perfect but good results. This is the second test. The first test I didn't record! WHAT KIND OF MAD SCIENTIST DOESN'T RECORD HIS TEST RESULTS?!?!

TEST 1

Setup:
The lamiar nozzle is attached to a garden hose #1. The nozzle was setup with an incline. The valve is fully open.

The Laminar nozzle setup includes the coffee straws, and a .5 countersink hole in the cap.

Results:
The flow wasn't entirely laminar, in fact I suspect that it was more in the transitional flow. At the orfice the flow was semi-organized and clear but with "veins" that looked like rifling. As the stream progressed the water became more and more broken-up. The arc was about 4' wide.

TEST 2
Setup:
The lamiar nozzle is attached to a garden hose #1. The nozzle was setup with an incline. The valve is fully open.

The Laminar nozzle setup includes the coffee straws, and a .5 countersink hole in the cap, and a 3" thick sponge that was cut into 4" diameter circle to fit inside the nozzle right by the inlet.

Results:
As you can see the results are much more clear and focused. There are still issues with the water at the outlet. It appears that the water has a "rifling" look to it. The water doesn't break up at all throughout the entire stream.