POUL DUE JENSEN FOUNDATION RESEARCH A flexible laboratory setup At Aalborg University (AAU), things are moving fast. The Smart Water Lab financed by Poul Due Jensen Foundation is literally coming together piece by piece, as the 14 lab modules are finished and delivered to the Department of Electronic Systems. Each module has a specific functionality and will allow the research group to simulate and test advanced real-life water systems as of spring of 2019. Water supply management is a problem on a global scale A lot of water is wasted around the world. Through better control of water networks, we can minimise leakage and control the risk of wastewater contamination. The lab takes us closer to reality Jorge Val Ledesma originally came from Spain, but did his masters in Control and Automation at AAU. He worked in the private sector for 1.5 years, but the professors brought him back to the university in November 2017 to work on the lab project, first as a Research Assistant, then as a PhD student. In collaboration with the professors, Jorge created the designs for all the piping and circuits and validated them through computer simulations before the group asked a mechanical design company and a workshop to produce the modules. It was more complicated to coordinate than they had foreseen in the project plan, but now the lab is coming together: Jorge Val Ledesma and Rafal Wisniewski Photo: Poul Due Jensen Foundation 32 “It is an interesting and complicated task to build a new lab from scratch. We gave a schematic of the model, what it should contain (pipes, sensors, fittings), and they gave a shape to the drawings. We developed it in collaboration with the supplier, because some components had to be connected in a specific way, which the supplier could not necessarily know. We had to tell them exactly how we wanted it,” Jorge explains. We can study the interconnections The lab will be a flexible testing ground with 14 building blocks which can be used to model different water networks. It comprises district heating, drinking water supply, and wastewater recollection. Part of the project is to also to study the interconnection between different networks. In the last phase of the project, the group will collaborate with water utilities to collect network data. The real-life data will be used to make more realistic experiments. An example could be water consumption, which changes over the course of the day. “We can simulate the different physical effects that we have in the pressurised
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