Hydraulic conductivity will be tested using variations of sediments in different proportions. (if feasible, and time permitting)
The following proportions will be tested and the results compared:
95% - sand 5% - clay
90% - sand 10% - clay
80% - sand 20% - clay
75% - sand 25% - clay
Along the Mississippi River the sediment varies in different areas. This experiment will test a few variations and retro-fit the sediment make-up to regions along the river.
I thought this one looked a bit simpler and if we run more than one sediment variation, it seemed like simple would be both cheaper and easier to replicate. Would we be able to have more than one? Then we could run simultaneous tests possibly even comparing as they go visually, as well as with the actual data?
ReplyDeleteIf we want to compare visually, I have a timelapse camera we could set up and then compare pictures at each time, I think even if you had multiple set-ups, starting them at the "same" time wouldn't be possible and they won't be that slow.
ReplyDeleteI do like the idea of comparing visually, especially if we've added dye. I think the smallest time increment is 10 seconds, but that should be great for making a moving of the water falling or dye flowing.
We might make more than one, so one could be settling, while another was being run or something though.
Cons: this one is still falling head, you had an even easier falling head one in my office didn't you? Why is this one better? (it really might be better)
what do you think they mean by sponge? Cleaning sponge? It'd be nice to either find more details on what sponge, or maybe use a filter or something more scientific.
We should also consider adapting it for constant head...
We could try setting tis up this week, and see what we're missing, etc.
ReplyDeleteI know we have tubes, not sure if we have stoppers that fit the tubes or not... But we should make a shopping list (so I know what to order, or borrow from chem/bio)
I looked at buying clay at hardware stores, they don't seem to have it, we could use an art supply clay. I did talk to a colleague at Ohio state, who has used art clay for earth science research. She did warn that clay is really platy and hard to get consistent results. (might or might not be a problem mixed with sand,) (We could also be mixing a really fine sand and a really course sand, or something like that, but I also like the idea of the clay, so I'm torn on that.
I think step 1, is to build the set-up (which may be delayed by shopping trips/ordering stuff, but we should start that) and then stick in all sand for the first trial.
ReplyDeleteYou'll want one that is 100% sand, 0 % clay on your list anyway. And we can focus on just getting it not to leak, and figuring out how the set-up works, we could try running a salt solution through if we can find a conductivity meter, so there is a lot of experimental set-up stuff we'll need to do just to get it all "working".
Do yo want to actually "try setting it up Wednesday when we meet? If so, what should I buy before then... If you want to look around lower hayes for supplies before Wednesday we could do that as well... I don't know what tubing we have, etc (That's at least an easy local buy and not something that will have to ship....)