Initial Phase
Initial Overall Design of Air Filter (click image for clearer illustration):
Prototype
3D-printed prototype 1 (8 slits, 1mm wide): As we could not get the simulation on SolidWorks to work, we decided to scale down the acrylic water feeding box to investigate the water flow out of the slits by means of a 3D-printed prototype. The very first prototype had 5 inlets as we wanted to test out which inlets will give rise to the maximum water flow through all the slits, giving the ‘water curtain’ that we were aiming to obtain.
3D-printed prototype 2 (8 slits, 1mm wide): After testing out our very first prototype, we discovered that the top three inlets located at the top gave rise to the best water flow through the slits when the box was inverted (i.e. water flowing from the bottom upwards)
We ultimately came to the conclusion that 1mm wide slits will give rise to a uniform water flow to achieve the ‘water curtain’ that we wish to create. This ensures that each acrylic plate is covered with a thin water film to maximize the area of contact with incoming air. However, we ran into a problem as the acrylic supplier told us that 1mm slits were too precise to fabricate and the minimum they could do was 3mm. With that, we had no choice and were forced to modify the dimensions of the 1mm wide slits. Similarly, we decided to 3D print a scaled-down prototype of the acrylic water box with 3mm wide slits to test if the uniform water flow could still be achieved now that the dimensions were changed.
3D-printed prototype 3 (8 slits, 3mm wide):
Video of water flow through 3mm slits:
Fortunately, the water flow through the 3mm slits was still relatively uniform and we were still able to achieve the ‘water curtain’ effect. Hence, we decided to go ahead to purchase the acrylic sheets with 3mm wide slits on them.
3D model of the acrylic box (actual dimensions with 3mm wide slits):
Final Product
Final Overall Design of Air Filter (click image for clearer illustration):
Block diagram of the detailed layout of electrical components (click image for clearer illustration):
Final product: