Ok, I know I'm a broken record here, so feel free to just skip this post if you're tired of all this fountain talk. I won't be offended.
I think I've gone about as far as I can go with a 4" tube fountain. So before I epoxy the whole thing together, I thought I'd post a little video showing how it was all made.
There are three main things that the fountain needs to do, as far as I can tell:
1) Slow down the water, so that it is easier to remove turbulence.
2) Remove the turbulence.
3) Reassemble the water and squirt it out the end.
The problem I've been having with the 4" tube is that if I want the water to squirt farther, I need to turn up the hose higher. That makes the water faster, and the turbulence isn't removed.
It occurs to me that with a longer tube, and more scouring pads or other features to slow down the water, it might have a better result, at the expense of a smaller package. Maybe I'll give that a shot.
Another option is to find some larger diameter pipe. This will spread out and slow down the water in a much shorter time period. The problem, though, is finding 8" pipe, end caps, etc.
I'm pretty much making all this up as I go along. If you have any suggestions, or if I've got my theory wrong (is there a hydrologist in the house?), let me know.
(If you're read this far and are totally bored, don't say I didn't warn you! This post is really meant for me to read in a few years and think "Oh yeah, I remember that!")
2009/04/13
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7 comments:
Awesome! I love it.
It would be kinda neat to really understand the science behind it all.
Much of the motivation for the "how to" video was for you, in case you wanted to make one.
I'd love to see what you could come up with!
As far as the science, I don't think the general theory is all that complicated: get all the water molecules moving in the same direction at the same speed...
Right. I was thinking more the specific effect of each piece of the fountain. In particular, the dead space at the end seems prone to turbulence.
"In particular, the dead space at the end seems prone to turbulence."
Why?
Caveat: I have no idea what I'm talking about...
Now, with that out of the way, I'll opine!
It seems like the edges (away from the egress) would have eddies. If the water is flowing evenly through the straws/screen, it should be hitting the end cap in many places where there is no place to exit. I would expect the water to bounce back, swirl, etc.
Would a cone shaped end cap be better?
Good question, and one that I've discussed with others.
I don't know what the answer is... I just know what I've seen other people do.
:)
That explanation that Norm gave was the same argument that I was making in our previous discussion about the straws having limited effect. As long as there is that final chamber after the straws there is the opportunity for turbulence to develop.
It seems to me that if the section with the straws was closer in diameter to the final stream you could reduce the turbulence.
Have you thought about getting a pump so you can increase your power, I thought sump pumps at home depot were pretty cheap (under $50), but looking online that doesn't seem correct.
Iwan
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