Precourt A3S Insulation Quarter 2 Final Report
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- India is the top producer of dried red chilies, exporting 1.7 million metric tons each year. Smallholder chili farmers in rural India struggle to produce consistent dried chili yields with traditional open-sun drying methods due to bleaching from direct sunlight, fungus growth from unpredictable rain, and the risk of theft. The Advanced Adaptable Agriculture System (A3S) serves as a solution for chili farmers to reduce food waste and increase their income, providing a protected greenhouse structure that can dry chilies reliably and grow seedlings in the off-season. Our objective is to optimize the insulation layer for the A3S so that it retains heat better than the current solution for the drying season and can be stored for the growing season. The insulation is a transparent polyethylene tarp, the same material as the outer structure of the A3S, so heat retention is primarily enabled by the air gap between these two layers. Initially, our objective had been to create an insulation layer that can be deployed during the night and retracted during the day to retain heat overnight for faster drying when the sun is not out. However, our experimentation revealed that having a double layer of polyethylene deployed during the day does not negatively affect daytime heat absorption into the structure which had been the logic behind needing to retract during the day. Therefore, our final insulation solution is a semi-permanent layer that retracts seasonally. The insulation layer will be deployed for the 5-month drying season and removed for the growing season when cooler temperatures are desired. During drying, solar heat enters the structure during the day through two PE layers and is retained at night in thermal water storage tanks in coordination with our insulation solution that prevents heat loss to the cold outside environment. Our solution uses wiggle wire to secure the tarp to the existing outer structure of the A3S and includes an implementation methodology, which standardizes the installation and removal process for operators. The insulation layer can be stored for the growing season, will last for at least three years of installations and removals, increases A3S temperatures, and costs half of the initial target amount. We were motivated to provide the best solution for our key users’ interests, smallholder chili farmers looking to increase their income and A3S operators who will implement our solution, while simultaneously minimizing cost so that the A3S can be sustainably run under local, independent ownership.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Date modified | December 5, 2022 |
| Publication date | March 21, 2022; 2022 |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Miller, John Luke |
|---|---|
| Author | Nates, Eva |
| Author | Porto, Juli |
| Author | Reyes, Emilio |
| Sponsor | Precourt Institute |
| Editor | Wood, Jeff |
| Editor | Pinto, Sarah |
| Data contributor | Machala, Michael |
Subjects
| Subject | wiggle wire |
|---|---|
| Subject | insulation |
| Subject | mechanical engineering |
| Genre | Text |
| Genre | Report |
Bibliographic information
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- User agrees that, where applicable, content will not be used to identify or to otherwise infringe the privacy or confidentiality rights of individuals. Content distributed via the Stanford Digital Repository may be subject to additional license and use restrictions applied by the depositor.
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC).
Preferred citation
- Preferred citation
- Miller, J., Nates, E., Porto, J., and Reyes, E. (2022). Precourt A3S Insulation Quarter 2 Final Report. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at https://purl.stanford.edu/vn488ry6786
Collection
ME170 Mechanical Engineering Design
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