Seven weeks, two projects, one city, and great friends. My time spent here at Rice has been a great experience.

Last week I finished with my mechanical portion of my project. As I previously posted we were having issues with the module itself as I said it was “cracking under pressure, LITERALLY”. After the epoxy dried we tested immediately, it was going strong for the first few minutes and no pressure was building. Once the module was filled with water that we started to see the window bulging out, and when we started messing with the flow rates we heard some cracking. We continued to run the module when the first crack developed and a minute or two later another area of the module started spiting out water. At this point are current module is not fixable, however we have learned from the mistakes that were made here and have developed a few idea to fix these problems as we fabricate a new one.

This next week, I am finishing up my computational modeling, and even teaching one of my mentor the program so he can take over once I leave. At this point my number show that higher flux is produced when a flow rate is higher and when the feed side is at a higher temperature and is coated with carbon black. Right now I am running constant data only changing the flow channels. This number is important because it will be use as reference for the new module. It should take me a day or two too finish it and I should be at that point officially done.

Other than my research here, the rest of my time here was used to make great friends and visit great areas of Houston. Allowing us to research at different universities has allowed me to get out of my comfort area as well as make impeccable connections. I am however ready to go back home to see my family, then back to phoenix to see my friends to tell them about my seven week trip.

Later Alligators,

Evelyn