Journey of a Model Water Tower

Every model has its story. Some naturally make it to the top, others struggle through onerous obstacles to reach the summit. My three water towers have an entirely different story.

No, they look nothing like this.

The motive behind the model water towers is the annual AWWA Model Water Tower Competition. The idea is to build a creative model water tower, one that obviates the original intention of the tower and instead is judged and scored by means of four categories.

• Design Ingenuity - The water tower must have a creative, original and well thought-out design.
• Cost Efficiency - The water tower must use recycled materials.
• Structural Efficiency - The water tower must be lightweight, sturdy, and have a high capacity.
• Fill/Drain Rate - The water tower must be able to fill and drain quickly.

At the competition, there is a station where water is pumped into the tower and then drained, while being timed. Being engineers, me and the rest of the science club decided to focus on this aspect of the competition. Although this made the resulting water tower interesting, it proved to be a stymie since we overlooked the rest of the categories. Hindsight is always 20/20.

When the club finished last year's tower, we didn't think anything could go wrong on the day of the competition. In fact, we hemmed and hawed at the possibility that anything wrong was going to happen, since our drain rate was to be so stellar. Regardless, take a look at last years entry.

It's.. Beautiful?

Here's how it's supposed to work: The bag in the top compartment fills up with water. The tower then flips upside down from being lop-sided. The weights fall down, forcing the water out of the bag. Simple? Yes. Practical? No. The tower flipped too early on D-day, causing leaks from the added pressure of the pump and thwarting the drain rate. Despite the debacle, we still managed to win honorary mention and received $50 for our efforts. Gotta love pity points.

This year took on a whole new perspective. With General Grant in plenipotentiary power, our opponents were to cry in mercy. After weeks of discussion and planning, two creations emerged. Those would be the skyscraper and Slappy.

The skyscraper.

The skyscraper features a ramp at the bottom to funnel the water to the tube. It is made out of clear plastic, presumably lexan, which was salvaged from the front of a rear-projection TV. It is held together with plastic epoxy and waterproofed with silicone sealant. Overall, the engineering crew and the design crew did a fantastic job.

Slappy Slapple "Le Gator" Reptar.

Constructed of scrap plywood, Slappy is unflappable, standing strong in the face of danger. His jaw is held by two hard drive magnets, which are precisely adjusted to let go when the bag fills up with the right amount of water. When the jaw swings down, it clamps the bag using more magnets, one of which can be seen in the picture. The result leaves Slappy with a rather surprised look as his jaw hangs slack.

Now, I worry about Slappy. The bag is actually a nylon bucket with a plastic sheet attached to one end. The bag's umbilical cord sways loose, being affixed only by silicone sealant. Airtight it is, but on the day of the competition the bag turned out to be a sheer farce. Due to the bag's rigidity, Slappy was reluctant to fill up with water, and instead leaked like a fire hose. All hope was lost.

Unfortunately, the day ended with neither Slappy nor the skyscraper taking a spot on the winner's podium. The judges, being the benevolent people they are, decided to recompense the science club for all of the effort we gave. Slappy ended up winning best design ingenuity, and the skyscraper won judges top pick for a total of $100. After hearing this, my grin could be seen from a bird's-eye view. Satisfaction at last!

Grant