Plastic takes nearly 500 years to decompose, and every year, 8 million ...

[Pages:1]Plastic takes nearly 500 years to decompose, and every year, 8 million metric tons of plastic is dumped. There is an estimated 80% of the world's ocean plastic comes from-land based uses with the other 20% from ocean vessels. 60% of this plastic travels through rivers before it reaches the oceans. Due to the time it takes to decompose and the toxins it contains, plastic must be removed and properly disposed of before destroying ecosystems.

This project aims to avoid damage to the ecosystem; we must design a machine to travel across the river using a conveyor belt to lift trash placed in a bin. Then the bin would be removed once the bin is full. The constraints required are PVC plastic pipes due to it a high buoyancy force, lightweight aluminum 6061 square tubing, and corrosion resistance. Two control systems, the first one controls remotely will guide the thruster the direction of the system and another control to turn on and off and adjustable speed for the conveyor belt.

Figure 2: Floaters (Top Left) PVC Pipes: 10" - 4ft long Aluminum square tubing: 4ft long tubes hold floaters together secured by hose clamps.

Due to the excessive amount of trash thrown out in different water bodies, we designed a machine that will help us clean our rivers, lakes, and oceans from plastic pollutants. Our design is mainly focused on rivers with a weak current. This machine will focus on floating trash such as plastic bottles, bags, etc. The design consists of a conveyor belt, thruster, motor, pipes, and square tubing.

Figure 1: Assembly (Center)

Figure 3: Conveyor System (Top Right) Angled at 30 degrees. Pulley materials: PVC Pipe, Aluminum 6063-T52 Angle Bars as the railings resist corrosion and are lightweight.

Figure 7: Floating trash in river

Figure 4: Thruster Assembly Placed below the aluminum square tubing and consists of Thruster, PVC pipe and rectangular box for steering in different directions.

Figure 5: Controls Box (Bottom Right)

Figure 6: Free Body Diagram of Floaters Total Mass: 194 Pounds of entire assembly Water-Line: 5.30 inches submerged Buoyant Force: 686.43 Newtons

SolidWorks modeling was done to determine the: water line, center of mass, center of buoyancy and buoyancy force.

The analysis determines the water line on the system and the diameter of the PVC pipe size needed for both floaters to prevent sinking.

PVC Pipes: 10" diameter ? 4 feet long

Figure 8: Thruster Controls System Schematic

Before using the Interceptor in a fresh body of water, it will be first tested in a swimming pool.

Throughout the pool, we will place 30 empty plastic bottles and control the Interceptor via remote close enough to the bottles allowing the conveyor to collect the bottles and place them into the bin.

 ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download