ENGS 89/90 Reports

Year of Graduation

2023

Project Advisor

Erin Mayfield

Instructor

Solomon Diamond

Document Type

Report

Publication Date

2023

Abstract

Running Tide is a global ocean health company harnessing the power of the ocean to combat climate through carbon dioxide removal (CDR). Their solution involves deploying buoys composed of forestry residues and seeded with macroalgae into the deep ocean. Floating for three to six months, the seeded macroalgae grows, pulling carbon from the atmosphere and ultimately causing the buoys to sink. Once sunk, the embodied carbon in the buoy and macroalgae is locked away for thousands of years. Students in ENGS 89/90 were tasked with building a simulated ocean testing environment to mimic buoy failure modes and help improve buoy design. Analyzing data provided by Running Tide, students hypothesized that the dependence upon frequency and amplitude of sink time needed to be more quantitatively understood. Thus, students designed, built, and instrumented a standing wave tank with continuous frequency and amplitude control. The design features a touchscreen UI, allowing lab technicians to easily control a numerical Python algorithm predicting resonant nodes and wave amplitude outputs.Waves are generated by a flap type wavemaker driven by a closed loop BLDC speed control system. Control transfer functions were validated using camera based tracking in combination with signal processing techniques. Along the way, students generated a variety of computational design tools in Excel, Matlab, and Python to guide future tank development.

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