Keeping the same level in two vessels?
Hi everybody
This is a practical physics question, I have this watering system: http://www.intwoplaces.com/oasis.ht...
It works like this: the tank is filled with water, the device has a valve controlled electrically (a timer circuit powered by a 9 volts battery). Depending on what you select the valve can stay open more or less allowing the water to go through the pipes you see in the picture.
Selecting between 10-15-20-30-40 days you can control the volume of water you use every day. The biggest limitation this system has is the capacity of the tank. If the battery lasts 90 days the only problem you have is the tank refilling.
What I would like to do is to use a second tank sitting just next to the existing one and to transfer water in the main tank using the communicating vessels principle but I wouldn't like to punch a hole in my tanks.
Somehow I would like to use a pipe that will allow the water flow at the top level of the tanks. Does anybody know a solution for this problem ?
Answer:
What you need is a simple siphon. An upside-down U-shaped pipe goes from near the bottom of one tank to near the bottom of the other, and it is filled with water (by closing off the ends and filling it before you put it into the tanks). It will automatically transfer water from one tank to the other, keeping the levels the same. No pump needed.
Your link doesn't work.
To connect the tanks, just use a syphon, a pipe or hose filled with water and with both ends emersed in each tank. The syphon tube will have to be held in place somehow and the ends will have to go down to the bottom if you want the second tank to fully empty into the first.
The easiest way would be to have two holes in the bottom as another person said here. I imagine you must have good reasons for not wanting to put holes in the vessels, I'd guess for structural reasons or that the expense of the vessels and the desire to possibly use them for other purposes.
If you really want to use a pump, use a device called a comparator. The LM339 by National Semiconductor is a good device with high input impedance. I used it for my senior project with a temperature sensing device that was very susceptible to loading effects. The best way would be to put a float in each vessel which operates a potentiometer. The voltage from each vessel's potentiometer is then fed into a comparator. Have a pull up resistor to a sufficient voltage on the comparator to run a pump motor. When the vessels are equal, the voltage will drop and turn the motor off. The vessel that you are using as a reference must be placed on the inverting input of the comparator for this to work. There might be a way to do this in a strictly mechanical way with two floats operating a lever much like kids on a see saw which operates a valve. If the valve needs to be large because you need a rapid flow there will be more friction and larger floats will be needed to overcome this. This may be a factor if your vessels are large and your requirements don't allow for much time to be spent reaching equilibrium. If the vessels are small, this won't be a factor.
If you're not willing to cut any holes in the tanks, then rather than monkey with ways to refill one of the tanks, why not just have the outlet from the two tanks come together in a "T" and go to the valve? You'll have the combined volume of the tanks available.
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This is a practical physics question, I have this watering system: http://www.intwoplaces.com/oasis.ht...
It works like this: the tank is filled with water, the device has a valve controlled electrically (a timer circuit powered by a 9 volts battery). Depending on what you select the valve can stay open more or less allowing the water to go through the pipes you see in the picture.
Selecting between 10-15-20-30-40 days you can control the volume of water you use every day. The biggest limitation this system has is the capacity of the tank. If the battery lasts 90 days the only problem you have is the tank refilling.
What I would like to do is to use a second tank sitting just next to the existing one and to transfer water in the main tank using the communicating vessels principle but I wouldn't like to punch a hole in my tanks.
Somehow I would like to use a pipe that will allow the water flow at the top level of the tanks. Does anybody know a solution for this problem ?
Answer:
What you need is a simple siphon. An upside-down U-shaped pipe goes from near the bottom of one tank to near the bottom of the other, and it is filled with water (by closing off the ends and filling it before you put it into the tanks). It will automatically transfer water from one tank to the other, keeping the levels the same. No pump needed.
Your link doesn't work.
To connect the tanks, just use a syphon, a pipe or hose filled with water and with both ends emersed in each tank. The syphon tube will have to be held in place somehow and the ends will have to go down to the bottom if you want the second tank to fully empty into the first.
The easiest way would be to have two holes in the bottom as another person said here. I imagine you must have good reasons for not wanting to put holes in the vessels, I'd guess for structural reasons or that the expense of the vessels and the desire to possibly use them for other purposes.
If you really want to use a pump, use a device called a comparator. The LM339 by National Semiconductor is a good device with high input impedance. I used it for my senior project with a temperature sensing device that was very susceptible to loading effects. The best way would be to put a float in each vessel which operates a potentiometer. The voltage from each vessel's potentiometer is then fed into a comparator. Have a pull up resistor to a sufficient voltage on the comparator to run a pump motor. When the vessels are equal, the voltage will drop and turn the motor off. The vessel that you are using as a reference must be placed on the inverting input of the comparator for this to work. There might be a way to do this in a strictly mechanical way with two floats operating a lever much like kids on a see saw which operates a valve. If the valve needs to be large because you need a rapid flow there will be more friction and larger floats will be needed to overcome this. This may be a factor if your vessels are large and your requirements don't allow for much time to be spent reaching equilibrium. If the vessels are small, this won't be a factor.
If you're not willing to cut any holes in the tanks, then rather than monkey with ways to refill one of the tanks, why not just have the outlet from the two tanks come together in a "T" and go to the valve? You'll have the combined volume of the tanks available.
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