Our project is an extension of the previous work done by COMP 523 students to be able to individually regulate the movement of each piston on the UNC Wavemaker project conducted by Dr. Roberto Camassa.
The UNC Wavemaker system is an insight into how waves seen in nature can be simulated in an artifical environment, right in the basement of Chapman Hall at UNC. This system allows researchers to be able to stratify layers of saltwater and freshwater, and study how the interactions between the two occur when waves that are seen in nature take place. The tank holds up to 13,500 gallons of water and is 27 feet deep, with an array of 30 pistons used to push water out and create the necessary movements to simulate the waves that they intend to study.
Currently, the means by which this is controlled is an interactive tkinter GUI designed by previous COMP 523 students, with the ability to modify and regulate ALL the pistons at the same time. However, after speaking with Dr. Camassa and Jim Mahaney, the director of the Applied Engineering Lab, we learned that this functionality isn’t the most effective for their intended use of the wavemaker, as they often times have to regulate rows of the pistons or individual pistons as opposed to every single one. The software we will be creating will remedy these issues, allowing researchers to accurately simulate the waves of their choice by regulating the individual pistons’ speed and pattern of firing.