INL - Grinder Water Circulation and Filtering System

Idaho National Laboratory (INL) has reached out to the University of Idaho to completely re-design a water filtration system that is to be used in a hot-cell environment. Our team is working closely with the staff here at The University of Idaho along with INL to ensure that our system meets all of the specific requirements. On this page we talk about the system we designed and built, decisions we made, and we will provide as much information on our project as possible. Overall, our project was a success and we are excited to share our work with you.

Problem Statement
For this project, we were tasked by Idaho National Laboratories (INL) to redesign a grinder/polisher water filtration system. The main function of this system is to rinse off a grinder and polisher within a hot-cell, filter the particulate and water solution, and recirculate the clean water back on the the grinder and polisher. The current system in use by INL needs to be redesigned because it needs cleaning often, the filter is expensive and inefficient, and the pump gets exposed to particulates from the grinder and polisher. As these are our three biggest challenges, we set out to design a system that focuses on particulate centralization and filter efficiency. Solving these issues will result in a system that can work for long durations and can be easily replaceable when needed.

Mission Statement
To completely re-design and build a working prototype for the INL hot cell grinder filtration system to meet the client’s specifications. We will design a system where the collection of muck in the water tank is minimized, create a more efficient flow in the filtration system, and apply a cheaper filter and pump to the system. We strive to provide the best possible product to our client.

Final Integration Design
FINAL DESIGN

This is the final integration design with all the placing of the components. The design is incomplete as it does not have finalized fittings on the pump or the filter to hold them in place. However, this design is elegant, easy to manufacture, and completes all the design tasks we need to reach the client’s needs. This design places the filer before the pump, much like the other designs, but does not have the bypass going into the filter. The filer will run completely gravity fed into a slanted tank as opposed to the flat tank of the other designs. The pump is places on the other end of the table at the end of the tank and pumps out into minimal tubing which allows for lower head loss. There is a T-joint at the maximum height constraint that allows for two values to be places on the ends of the T-joint. These values are for controlling the flow onto the grinder and creating a bypass tube for excess flow from the pump. This design is what we decided to be the best design to pursue moving forward.