Hi everyone! This past week the team completed the Prototype Inspection Day event put on by the IPPD program, and we had a blast. We thought that the feedback we received was incredibly valuable, especially because the judges were from a multitude of different backgrounds which helped us gain new perspectives on the project. Specifically, we had some roadblocks in terms of the simulation on Aspen Plus. We were unable to find specific property data for many of the chemicals we were trying to use, but the judges with a background in chemistry were able to point us in the direction of resources that may help. We also received good design feedback on our CSTR from the model we printed, and have an idea of how we will fix the design moving forward.

We identified a big problem with the reactor is solid buildup due to the addition of Magnesium chips. Our plan is to use a settling pipe with a filter to control and remove solids from the system. We will need to do computational fluid dynamic (CFD) analysis on the flow inside our reactor and settling pipe which Luke and Faisal plan to do using ANSYS Fluent. Looking forward to the end of the semester, Thanksgiving break is next week. After some much needed R&R, the team will focus on the System Level Design Review (SLDR) taking place the 2nd week in December. We’ll start finalizing our reactor design and hope to have a complete simulation running showing reaction completion. Thanks for checking out our blog, and stay tuned for how the project unfolds over the next couple weeks!