BME.12 – Designing Reliable Containment for a Stormwater Purification System
Team Members Heading link
- Natalie Agoncillo
- Hamdan Alkhoori
- Poojan Patel
- Michael Quan
- Joshua Sun
Project Description Heading link
In recent years, Milwaukee has experienced increased water contamination due to structure deficiencies within its wastewater management infrastructure. To solve this, DMR International developed pellets with antimicrobial properties of copper and zinc to kill pathogens. However, the developers need a robust pellet containment and catch basin integration solution. The latest containment design is a bag that houses the pellets placed near the outlet pipe. These bag’s structural integrity begins to deteriorate under hydrodynamic perturbations, disqualifying it as a long-term solution that can endure storm events. A robust pellet containment device is resistant to physical perturbations, pellet leakage, and pipe flooding from backflow. We built a multilayered cylindrical containment device with three layers of varying pellet quantity. The top layer has no pellets, serving as a water bypass during heavy storm events. The pellets are contained within mesh bags that have pores smaller than the 3.2 mm diameter of the pellets to prevent pellet leakage. The device is designed to be inserted directly into the outlet pipe and passively filters water as it passes through. Our main verification tests are: flow impedance testing and lifetime testing. The flow impedance test measures the effect of the containment device on the flow rate. For the lifetime testing, a flow model will be used to simulate 5 years’ worth of rain events in a span of 16 days. During these 16 days, pellet leakage and containment device displacement will be measured. The lifetime testing data will be analyzed for the relationship between time and pellet leakage, containment device displacement, and visible physical damage. The flow impedance testing results will be used to determine the flow reduction caused by the device. Our device is designed to reliably contain filter medium and enhance the stormwater infrastructure that sustains long-term water supply for communities in Milwaukee.