For this maquette I wanted to test the size of the vortex as well as how the flame reacted to the swirling water. In order to achieve this I started by first ordering a pump and corresponding tubing. Once these arrived I worked with a few different water vessels in various sizes that I had around the house and decided that between a 4-6 inch diameter vessel will be the correct size with the current pump that I have. By drilling a 2 inch hole into the bottom of the container i was able to create a vortex that was wide enough to keep the flame going.
For the flame I created a miniature alcohol lamp from a small sample jar filled with 91% isopropyl alcohol with Q-tips acting as a wick. This worked well and created a flame that was around 2 inches high without any airflow changes
From these tests I discovered 2 main things. First off, the pump that I have many not be strong enough for any larger scale. As is the water height only reaches about 4 inches high. A smaller vessel or an additional pump may help this. The other observation was that the fire was trying to swirl but did not have enough airflow to make it work. I am hoping that increasing the height of the vortex will swirl more air and achieve the desired affect. Barring this, I may have to create a mechanical solution that physically spins the fire itself to achieve this affect.
Overall I was pleased with the maquette and I really liked how the fire reflected off of the swirling water.
Moving forward I plan to follow this timeline for the next week:
- Friday order glass and glass cutter for show vessel and water holding vessel
- Saturday figure out if it is feasible to cut glass using wine bottles
- Sunday experiment further with different sized vessels too see if I can get the fire to swirl more effectively
- Monday – determine how to mount the fire so it will not get wet but still achieves a tall flame
- Tuesday – hopefully receive glass and work on cutting actual products.
I also need to source the following materials:
- Potentially an additional pump:
- Glass/Acrylic/wrappable Viny cylinder to hold vortex
- Glass vase for housing water reservoir
- glass cutting tools
- Nice looking screen to hide pump
- potentially a motor to spin fire
- funnel for easier refueling and possibly protecting the fire from the splash
- Standard operation of the vortex
Vortex while spraying fire into the chamber