Anti-slosh dividers

[efoda]

[efoda]

After a good night's sleep, I realized this doesn't have to be as complicated as I originally thought.

Some good plastic shim stock could just be glued to either side of the plate along the top. You could then glue the shim stock together above the plates for rigidity. Shim stock would be thick enough for rigidity but thin enough to allow gas flow... .01 - .02" thick would probably do the trick.

Also had an idea about water leveling/filling. Instead of running hose through the plates... what about drilling overflow holes/slots between and above each plate (in between the shims) that would drain into a side storage reservoir. This reservoir would double as your storage reservoir and you could add a small pump that would continually recirculate the water back into the cells through a hose or pipe with small drilled holes. A level gauge could also be attached to this reservoir which gives a nice way of metering level without worrying about individual cell levels.

If I can't find any flaws with this design, I may end up doing something like this for my cell. What do you guys think?

[Bob Boyce]

Just use a thin strip of plastic the same thickness as the plates and slide them into the slots over the plates after the plates have been installed. A very thin bead of sealer or adhesive could bond each plastic strip to the top edge of each plate.

The drain/trough idea has been recommended before. Anything that allows a common point for even a tiny amount of fluid flow into any common channel or chamber will be a source of power leakage. Try to think of the electrolyte as a watery liquid metal conductor (which it sorta is due to the metal based electrolyte). Anywhere that a liquid film or flow meets from one cell to the next will "short out" some of the power applied to the cells.

Bob

[kevinsatterfield]

Rhodes says that if the slots on the bottom of the plates are deep enough...deeper than the sides, it helps keep losses down.How much deeper should they be on the bottom?

[efoda]

Hi Bob,

Yes, I realized the simplicity of RS's original concept after thinking of the most elaborate solution possible . Unfotunately, my mind always starts with the complex and then dwindles down from there, hehe.

I don't think I explained the water drain clearly enough. With this drain design, there would be no common point or common channel for the electrolyte to mix while touching more than one cell. Each cell, would have a seperate overflow hole that would drain into a reservoir seperate from the main plate insert housing. The reservoir could be as big or as small as you would like to have water on reserve. Ok, gonna try and upload a pic:

[glenn_aircooled]

efoda, I like your Reservoir concept. Its excellent - a lot of work , but then
will keep level at optimum with so little maintenance.
I see that it could easily incorporate the electrolyte thermostatically controlled
heater system as well. Get the unit up to temp fast and keep it there. Put the
heat exchange just after the pump.
Cheers, Glenn.

[Bob Boyce]

[efoda]

Hehe, ok, I think I was hoping you might have not understood .

I actually did think about the film you mentioned, but I thought that it would be thin enough to not be a good conductor. I'll go with your experience saying that it would be.

Well, one way I can think of salvaging the design so that you could get around the film on the reservoir walls would be to insert some teflon tubing in the holes and have them bend downwards so that the electrolyte drips into the air instead of runs down a wall. With 1/16"OD and 1/32" ID, I don't think it will do anything BUT drip, so there probably wouldn't be too much concern with the flow streams passing current to each other. If it didn't drip, however, either smaller ID's could be purchased or the pump could be set to a more passive rate. Doesn't add too much more complexity to the design and the tubing is pretty cheap.

So what do you think, is that design problem potentially solved? [braces himself for next curve ball]

[cwaugs]

In a perfefect world all cells would output the same and all spray holes would put out the same and between sloshing and spray-bar output, fill the cells the same. Unfortunately this is not the case on both fronts. My Bob cell has relatively loose slots (6-12 thou. clearance) and a very close fitting top with slots in it encouraging the electrolyte to stay in the cell. then the output of the cell goes into a "washer" read "bubbler" to keep the electrolyte that might escape with the hydroxy as Bob has mentioned in past posts. (which is used to re-fill the cell). I read about a lot of cell designs that have very tight slots making plate installation very difficult and making my next statement impossible. I think it would be a good idea to have a "cam" on one end of the cell that would be in the center of the plate, and spacers in the center of each cell (that would have a gap at the bottom to allow the spray bar to be on one side or the other of the individual cell, but would allow the each individual cell to equalize), Then the loose slots would allow the cell to equalize with each other, but when the cam is turned, it effectively "seals" the cells against the one side of the slots by slightly flexing the plates, also effectively, accurately, spacing the plates in the center. This relatively simple design would allow the cells to equalize in relation to each other when the cells are filled, or the levels become un-equal enough to cause in-efficiency, yet be efficitively sealed from "cross current leakage". That's what not being able to sleep at 3:00 AM this morning gets ya. Any criticizm is both encouraged and expected. Wayne

I build, I learn, I build again

[slipstreem11]

Could you fill each cell from bottom?
drill hole length of bottom plastic the drill hole from each cell into hole that is drilled length of plastic but not clear through . connect to resevoir same depth of cells, water will seak its own level. each cell would then fill itself. i think this may work.

[slipstreem11]

[cwaugs]

[slipstreem11]

[glenn_aircooled]

[glenn_aircooled]