Project Overview
Background: Every year Drexel University students and faculty members go on an expedition to the island of Bioko to survey and protect the wildlife. This island is located in the Gulf of Guinea which is close to the equator causing climate and humidity conditions. In order to dry their clothes the people living on this island and the Drexel University volunteers have to hang their clothes on a clothes line. Due to humidity and unpredictable rain it’s nearly impossible to completely dry clothes on a line. So a lot of the time they have to wear wet clothing, leading to irritation, rashes, and attracting fruit flies.
Problem Statement: Climate conditions on the island of Bioko make drying clothes a long and difficult process, causing the clothes to never become entirely dry. The Engineering Design Group has to find a way to completely dry these clothes despite the conditions.
Stakeholders: The Engineering Group working on the project
Dr. Gallagher, Dr. Hearn, and Drexel expedition group
Manufacturers of clothing drying device
Bioko Residents at camps
Needs:
The Enginieering Group working on the project
- Fulfill requirements of Engr-103
- Good Grade
- A way to dry about 60 outfits daily
- A cheap and simple design to construct
- A device that is in demand
- A very affordable and simple device to dry their clothes
Priorities:
Performance - The number one
priority for this project is performance.
We want the device or method developed to dry the clothes of Drexel’s
expedition group and Bioko residents as much as possible. The successfulness of this device or method
will be based on how well it can dry clothes.
Easy to Assemble - The second priority is for
the device or method to be easy to understand and assemble, if assembly is
required. The manufacturers of the
clothing device must have a guideline to build the device, and it would be ideal
for Bioko residents and Drexel expedition group to be able to understand how to
use the device by just looking at it. If
necessary a diagram can be created explaining how one uses the clothes drying
method or device.
Load Size
-
The third priority is for the device or method to be able to dry a decent load
size of clothes. There were up to 60
people on the Drexel camps in Bioko last year.
And it would be very efficient and convenient if about 15 pairs of
clothes could be dried every time the device was used.
Little Energy Consumption - The fourth priority is
that the way the clothes are dried uses little to no electricity or gasoline. The Drexel expedition group and residents
around the camps use gas powered generators to power their necessities. So it would be beneficial if the clothes
drying device consumed little or none of the power from the generators. Also using little to no electricity or
gasoline will support sustainability and be healthy for the planet.
Constraints:
A constraint is that the Bioko is a remote island.
There are not many sources of energy; the Drexel expedition group and the
Bioko residents use generators to power their devices. There are only 4 generators, three have 1000 volts and 1 has 2000 volts. It is possible to
use power from this generator to dry clothes but there is limited power
available. There is a constraint on using solar energy because of the
cloudy conditions in Bioko. As of two
years ago, solar cells were not able to capture enough sunlight to produce
energy when another Engineering Design Group attempted to harness the sun’s
energy in Bioko.
Conceptual Design
Initial Concepts: A two stage drying process is considered. After the clothing has been washed, it is brought back to the camp in a soaked and dripping state. Right after this the first stage of the design consisting of a method to address the need of removing the bulk of the water out of the clothing begins.
Stage 1 -
- One of the designs for the first stage of the drying process is spinning the clothing in a collapsible cylinder that would be human powered
- Another design is to squeeze the water out by passing the clothing between two cylinders.
Stage 2 -
- Heating something using the fire and then applying it to the clothes to heat the water away
- Another method would be either to create an inflatable chamber with a rack system inside that would use solar heat to dry it
- Another option would be to use the same chamber but also depressurize the chamber to decrease the evaporation time
- It was also brought into consideration to use water absorbing salts to dehumidify the system.
- Passing a thermal conductor through the camp fire already available. In this way the heat of the fire can be used to dry the wet clothes.
- Another heat source that can be applied using the thermal conductor concept is the exhaust of the gasoline generator that is used in all Bioko camps since exhausts of combustion engines emit a significant amount of heat.
Deliverables:
- Decide drying method,
- Midterm meeting to talk about progress and next steps,
- Designing the initial prototype,
- Create prototype,
- Test drying prototype,
- Quality of dryness check,
- Make improvements on Prototype
Schedule:
Week 1 - Create Website for the Bioko Clothes Drying Project
Week 2 - Research drying methods and update website
Week 3 - Meet with Clients, Prof. Gallagher and Prof. Hearn, to learn more about Bioko and the Priorities and Constraints.
Week 4 - Create initial draft for Design Proposal and Create Concept Tree to analyze possible drying methods.
Week 5 - Final Design Proposal draft due and Create Decision Matrix to help decide which method to use. Decide which method is going to be used to dry the clothes.
Week 6 - Midterm meeting to talk about progress and next steps. Designing drying prototype.
Week 7 - Finish designing Prototype and begin building it.
Week 8 - Start Working on the final report draft and continue building prototype.
Week 9 - Finish and test prototype design, making adjustments where necessary.
Week 10 - Finish final report and prepare presentation. Make a quality check on final design. Measure successfulness.
Budget: Expected cost depending on the drying design used could range from $50 to $500, of our $1000 budget.
References:
- Dr. Gallagher
- Dr. Hearn
- WIPO PUBLISHES PATENT OF UVDRY FOR "CLOTHES DRYER USING ULTRA-VIOLET RADIATION AND METHOD OF DRYING CLOTHES" (AMERICAN INVENTORS). (2012, March 3). US Fed News Service, Including US State News,Page 1. Retrieved May 4, 2012, from General Interest Module. (Document ID: 2600678871)
- Conrad O . Perera and Mohammad Shafiur Rahman. Handbook of Food Preservation, Second Edition. Jul 2007 , 403 -432
- O. E. Crites. “Clothes Wringer Device.” U.S. Patent 2 247 874, July 1, 1941.
- G. Pagano. “Clothes Wringer.” U.S Patent 1 628 554, May 10, 1921.
- C. E. Kennet. “Clothes Wringer and the Like.” U.S. Patent 1 972 778, Sep. 4, 1934.
- J. E. Braun, P. K. Bansal, E. A. Groll. “Energy Efficiency Analysis of Air Cycle Heat Pump Dryers.” International Journal of Refrigeration, vol. 25, pp. 954-965, Nov. 2002.
- A. Ameen, S. Bari. “Investigation into the Effectiveness of Heat Pump Assisted Clothes Dryer for Humid Tropics.” Energy Conversion and Management, vol. 45, pp. 1397-1405, June 2004.
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