Language

English (en)

Publication Date

Fall 2025

Document Type

Final Report

Embargo Date

12-8-2025

Problem Statement

Christina Youngepeter is a Graduate Student of Archaeology at Washington University in St. Louis. She is studying an ancient plant that fell out of use after 1400 CE, whose ideal watering conditions are lost to time. To better characterize the plant, Christina is running an experiment to determine the ideal watering conditions for plant development. This involves watering sets of the plant with different volumes of water twice a day. The different volumes of water received by the groups of plants are 933 mL, 833 mL, 733 mL, 617 mL, 517 mL, and 417 mL. The acceptable percent error in this delivered volume is 5%. Water is currently measured and delivered to plants by hand, but as the project expands to hundreds of plants (150-360 plants), this watering method is no longer feasible. To facilitate expansion, Christina wants a modular water delivery system that is designed to water 36 plants automatically, providing different amounts of water to watering groups of six plants. Furthermore, the watering schedule followed by the system must have the ability to be changed and set by the user. To accomplish this, a unique and precise water distribution system (PWD) was designed. The PWD will be implemented in the WashU greenhouse and will have access to water lines and power outlets. The University City tap water lines supply the water to the PWD. This water is currently used to water the plants and is an approved source of water for the PWD. In addition, the greenhouse houses structures such as cross beams which can provide support to the PWD. Any load applied to the greenhouse structure must be approved by the greenhouse manager, Benjamin Wolf, PhD. The following work is a detailed record of the design process and final product.

Author's School

McKelvey School of Engineering

Author's Department

Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science

Class Name

Mechanical Engineering Design Project (MEMS 411)

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