Multidisciplinary Senior Design P12056 – Ergonomic Improvements to Personal Smoke Monitoring Device Christina Smith April 9, 2012 Orifice Plate Test Results A test was conducted on the orifice plate and the pressure sensor in order to test the consistency of the orifice place and its compatibility with the pressure sensor. Setup Using the flow meter setup from Project 12055, a labview program (Program is available on Edge under the Orifice Plate and Pressure Sensor section of the Test Plan) was created to read and record flow meter readings. The same program also read and recorded data from our chosen pressure sensor (MB-LPS1-01-200U5R). Picture 1 shows the setup of the flow meter (Alicat Scientific M-50SLPM-D-30PSIA/5M). The male to female adapter is screwed into the left side of the flow meter. The yellow tubing fixed to the adapter is connected to the clear hose, which is shown attached to the orifice plate in Picture 3. Picture 1 Multidisciplinary Senior Design P12056 – Ergonomic Improvements to Personal Smoke Monitoring Device Picture 2 shows the setup of the right side of the flow meter. The flexible tubing is inserted into the smaller left hole. The other end of the tubing is to the vacuum pump. Picture 2 Picture 3 shows the setup of the orifice plate. The clear tubing on the right side of the orifice plate is attached to the flow meter shown in Picture 1. The two small clear tubes attached to the pressure taps are attached to the pressure sensor circuitry. A cigarette is inserted into the left side of the orifice plate. Picture 3 Multidisciplinary Senior Design P12056 – Ergonomic Improvements to Personal Smoke Monitoring Device Pictures 4 and 5 show the entire setup of the experiment (the pressure sensor is not hooked up in these pictures) Picture 4 Multidisciplinary Senior Design P12056 – Ergonomic Improvements to Personal Smoke Monitoring Device Picture 5 Multidisciplinary Senior Design P12056 – Ergonomic Improvements to Personal Smoke Monitoring Device Pictures 6 and 7 show the setup for the DAQ. AN NI-6008 DAQ was used, which I integrated within the Labview program for the test. Picture 6 Picture 7 Multidisciplinary Senior Design P12056 – Ergonomic Improvements to Personal Smoke Monitoring Device Procedure After zeroing the flow meter and the vacuum pump, the labview program was started. The flow meter was increased by approximately 0.25 L/min every 15-20 seconds, until it reached 4.25 L/min. This process was repeated five times. Results and Analysis The labivew program outputs the flow meter data in mL/s, so no conversion is needed. The pressure sensor data is outputted as a voltage drop. In order to convert the voltage to a pressure drop, the following data was taken from the pressure sensor data sheet: Figure 1 Multidisciplinary Senior Design P12056 – Ergonomic Improvements to Personal Smoke Monitoring Device Figure 1 shows the full scale of our selected pressure sensor to be 0-2” H20. The ratiometric output of this series of pressure sensor provides a maximum output voltage of 4.5V, as stated in the general description on the data sheet. Using this information, as well as the linear relationship provided in Figure 2, we can create a linear relationship for out specific pressure sensor. Taking the inverse of this relationship gives us the graph shown in Figure 3. The equation y = 0.4938x – 0.2222 represents the pressure change as a function of voltage output. Using this conversion factor, we were able to create the graph shown in Figure 4. Figure 2 Figure 3 Multidisciplinary Senior Design P12056 – Ergonomic Improvements to Personal Smoke Monitoring Device Figure 4 Multidisciplinary Senior Design P12056 – Ergonomic Improvements to Personal Smoke Monitoring Device Trial Equation R2 1 y = 0.00015653x2 + 0.00257933x - 0.00168944 0.99773962 2 y = 0.00015737x2 + 0.00270556x - 0.00574824 0.99898271 3 y = 0.00015972x2 + 0.00238248x + 0.00010354 0.99846106 4 y = 0.00015960x2 + 0.00239955x + 0.00093494 0.99962162 5 y = 0.00015653x2 + 0.00257933x - 0.00168944 0.99773962 Calibrated Curve y = 0.00015833x2 + 0.00251597x - 0.00114353 0.99885096 Theoretical Curve y = 0.00035559x2 - 0.00135681x + 0.00362593 0.99999084 Drilled Out y = 0.00024226x2 + 0.00311794x + 0.00044809 0.99962256 Figure 5 Figure 5 shows the best-fit equation and R2 value for each of the respective trials, as well as the theoretical curve, final calibration curve, and drilled out curve. The calibration curve was derived as an average of the best fit curves for the five trials. Many of the people surveyed about the orifice plate stated that they experience a lot of resistance when smoking through the device. In order to try and reduce this, the team drilled out the end of the orifice plate. Figure 6 shows the schematics of the orifice plate before and after being drilled out. A new test was then performed on the optimized orifice plate, the results of which can be seen in Figure 4. The predicted pressure given by the theoretical curve in Figure 4 was shown to be much higher than the actual pressure drop recorded in our original trials. This could have been because of numerous step downs present in the tubing used in our experiment. The tubing connecting the vacuum pump to the flow meter was not tightly fitted into the input hole, and we could likely benefit from a tighter seal in the future. Multidisciplinary Senior Design P12056 – Ergonomic Improvements to Personal Smoke Monitoring Device Figure 6 Conclusions Overall, the orifice plate proved that it is capable of producing consistent data. Each of the five trials showed very little variation, with minimal outliers. The calibration curve derived from this experiment can be used in the future to predict a pressure drop from a given flow rate.