Week Four

Weekly Objectives:

We have ordered one of the new fans that was mentioned in last week's entry. We wanted to get one so we could test to make sure it will work well enough for us to use. We are currently waiting for that to arrive, then we can begin to assemble the electronic components, and then the full housing. We are also continuing to try to begin communicating with the head of the fashion design school. We have still not received an email back. We might try to contact someone else.

What was accomplished:

Unfortunately, we were not able to accomplish much this week as we are still waiting for parts and materials to be delivered. We have ordered the fans,  and also the plastic that we will make the housing with. We decided to use a high density polyethylene plastic as it is relatively lighter and more easy to machine than metal is. The material we ordered can be found here and here. One for the main body, and the other for the top of the housing. We plan on using a CNC router in the innovation studio called the Handibot for this. We will need to take the 3D model and create a tool path for the machine to follow once we are ready to fabricate the fan assembly, however we still need the fans so that we can better understand how to fit them into the case.

Also on the agenda this week was exploring aerodynamics, and how we plan on channeling air for the jacket. To try to understand this, we began exploring fluid flow through pipes in the form of Bernoulli's equation (the tutorial we looked up can be found on the relevant information page or by clicking here. We have not yet attempted to do actual math for this, however we are much more aware of general trends that exist in fluid dynamics now. It is important for us to understand that as if the diameter of the pipe is decreased, the velocity of the flow of air is increased, and also that the velocity and pressure of the flow can be affected by height differences. We are also continuing to try to create a 3D model of a person's torso so that we can put air channels on it to try to simulate what the air will flow like around the torso and intakes. This will help us when we actually begin designing the jacket.

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