August 12, 2016

What is this material!

TDRM has the potential to be a hugely utilised material for many different situations, drainage is only scratching the surface!

Sound barriers
Pavement design
Railways

Therefore it may be useful to actually find out a little more about the material we have been working with.

So we carried out a Particle Distribution Test.

PDT

From the image above you can see that the sieves are stacked on top of each other. the sieves with the largest diameter are placed at the top and the smallest at the bottom. Once the lid is clamped on, the stack is then vibrated to create movement within the material to encourage it to filter through the sieves.

The sieves used were; 37.5mm, 28mm, 20mm, 14mm, 10mm, 8mm, 5mm, 2.36mm, 1.18mm

After repeating the experiment with three different samples the results were plotted (see below)

Particle Distribution Data

when we received the material we were quoted a size of 20mm… well from the results I think its pretty clear is certainly not all 20mm! The material mostly is varied between 10-14mm. therefore if we can further our research and place this material in drains on the Trunk road it would be idea to source a different supplier or separate the material so we can use the larger particles sizes, that being no smaller than 20mm.

August 12, 2016

Day 1 in the Lab

So quick summary, we now have the materials and equipment for the research and have managed to assemble everything to finally start taking samples!

Tank 1: 700mm TDRM, 100mm aggregate cap

Sooo our tank is assembled! The plan is to run a 30 year storm through the tank and take a control sample from the inlet of the water and then two further samples from the base of the tank, one half way through the cycle and the second at the end.

As the cycle is running valves needed to be opened and closed controlling the flow into the pipe. When each valve is opened the temperature will be taken, this was done by using thermocouples (see image below). these had been placed within the tank on preparation, lucky we remembered to put them in!!

V notch that allows us to calculate the flow entering the tanks

Thermocouples used to read the temperature from two depths within the tank

February 3, 2016

Progress!

Yes, you read that right, we finally made some progress! After some confusion, a broken down lorry and exams, we eventually got our TDRM delivered!

Here is our one ton bag of TDRM in all its glory

So what have we done the past few months? Well much of the experiment has changed. Our first setback was when we visited the test site at Riverside. Upon inspection of the steel drums we were to use, we found they were rusted beyond repair. Time to think of a plan B!

So once we knew this, we consulted our technician, Bob who suggested using plastic pipes and doing the testing within the Abertay laboratory. As a result of this, we needed significantly less material – one ton as opposed to the three tons we had on order. Bear Scotland went out there way to provide the research with the material despite the plans changing on several occasions, they provided a driver that expertly managed to maneuver the lorry through a series for tight twists and bends. Also, the delivery up to the kind people at Angus Rubber Crumb on the same day took care of the extra two bags that we no longer needed.

The experiment is still reasonably similar to what we previously envisioned, however we are now using the space outside the Abertay lab, and slightly smaller plastic pipes rather than the steel drums. This will be of benefit to us – not only because we are closer to a technician for help but it allows us to create a more controlled environment. The lab at Abertay has a large water tank in which we can keep the volume and flow of the water constant.

Anyway, what’s left? Not much really, we just need to order our pipes and have them manufactured when they arrive. Once this is done, we fill them up with aggregate and TDRM and off we go! Watch this space for updates!

And finally, have a look of our photos of the TDRM delivery!