ORIGINAL TESTS: TESTING THE PROBES & ENVIRONMENT
After designing an experiment that tested calcium chloride's effectiveness to lower the relative humidity of flour bags stored in a 100%-relative humidity environment and gathering multiple data sets, we were ready to redesign and retest our setup. The following display represents the data we gathered during our original test.
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Red line = temperature
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Blue line = relative humidity
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Green line = dew point
We concluded that the desiccant was effective in lowering the relative humidity of the environment, and a design for a technological prototype based off of of these findings could be a possible solution to this food storage problem.
TEST DATA
CONCLUSIONS & FINAL DATA
This graphs depicts the humidity within the glove chamber environment. The humidity appears to be over 90% throughout the week. The immediate drop in the data indicates over 100% humidity.
The humidity within the flour bag that did not contain desiccant took over 5 hours to lower the relative humidity reading. Even then, the humidity only went down to about 50%.
This graph illustrates the effectiveness of the calcium chloride desiccant placed within the flour bag. Even when exposed to over 90% humidity for an hour, the relative humidity never went over 20%.
This is a side-by-side comparison of humidity trends for the control environment and the 25% desiccant environment throughout the week.
The Desiccant
When desiccant is exposed to moisture, it gains weight through absorption. The desiccant gained 8.06 g over the course of the week of testing. As the calcium chloride gains weight, it becomes a less effective desiccant. Due to this, a process for drying the desiccant needs to be developed. Perhaps working with the dehydrator or electric cooker groups would be an effective solution in the future.