Fieldwork: Mapping beaver habitats
When I started my doctoral studies, I envisioned studying the mechanics of beaver dams. As a mechanical engineer who spent nearly the entirety of her undergraduate research looking at the biomechanics of biopolymer gels, I thought this would be a great project that would work to my already developed strengths. I even had a plan. I was first going to make a 3d model of a beaver dam, and then systematically tear it apart, and make miniature beaver dams to test their mechanical properties on an Instron and rheometer.
I had a plan. I had my drone. I had a newly acquired UAV license. I had blind optimism. I had no clue what I was doing.
I was up in the air and the dams were tiny. At least tiny compared to the damming complex, which was filled with multiple dams, trails, canals, ponds, a lodge, and a few scent mounds. I was even able to make my first orthomosaic. This thesis project then became my full personality for 5 years.
I had a plan. I had my drone. I had a newly acquired UAV license. I had blind optimism. I had no clue what I was doing.
I was up in the air and the dams were tiny. At least tiny compared to the damming complex, which was filled with multiple dams, trails, canals, ponds, a lodge, and a few scent mounds. I was even able to make my first orthomosaic. This thesis project then became my full personality for 5 years.
Experimental work: Building a fluid flume
For the experimental part of my thesis work, I designed, machined, assembled, troubleshot, and ultimately used the fluid flume to run experiments on logjams.
The purpose of my flow cell is to conduct experimental work to understand the hydrodynamic conditions under which log jams form.
I started out with a circular flume, a bit of a gold fish race track kind of vibe. Although I built this tank out of optically clear acrylic, I had to go back to the drawing board. I didn't care for how acrylic machined and when it failed, acrylic failed fast. Not ideal when it is filled with water (and glitter). Ultimately I settled on polycarbonate sheets. The machining of polycarbonate was (chef's kiss) beautiful. Also, it didn't fast fracture which was ideal, and the optics were good enough.
The purpose of my flow cell is to conduct experimental work to understand the hydrodynamic conditions under which log jams form.
I started out with a circular flume, a bit of a gold fish race track kind of vibe. Although I built this tank out of optically clear acrylic, I had to go back to the drawing board. I didn't care for how acrylic machined and when it failed, acrylic failed fast. Not ideal when it is filled with water (and glitter). Ultimately I settled on polycarbonate sheets. The machining of polycarbonate was (chef's kiss) beautiful. Also, it didn't fast fracture which was ideal, and the optics were good enough.
The design went through quite a few interations. It started round and narrow and finally settled on relatively long and relatively wide.. There were many more tricks with lighting, imaging, and image analysis. All together, this took me around eight months of dedicated work to finally get to the point where I could run my first experiment.