Patch the wall

Development of Prototype
Example of our idea
filling in the holes
the set of up our prototype
Prototype
Making of the arduino temperature sensor

Inspiration

In many cities ravaged by war, insulation to buildings would be damaged by gunfire or other impacts Damage repair may not be immediate and the country may not be able to cope with the costs to repair/have the resources to do timely repairs/ repairs to buildings would possibly take years which is suboptimal

What it does

Our idea is to use expanding foam to patch the damaged walls of the buildings, restoring its waterproofing and thermal insulating properties until such a time that proper repairs can be carried out on the building.

How we built it

We built a 1:10 scale prototype using a plastic box to simulate the building and ply wood with holes cut out to simulate the damaged wall. 3 prototypes were made; the 'baseline' prototype without any holes, the 'perforated' prototype where holes where cut out and the 'patched' where the holes were filled with party spray to simulate the expanding insulating foam. We used Arduino to measure the temperature of the building as well as the surrounding temperature for comparison.

Challenges we ran into

One challenge we faced was to acquire the materials need to construct our prototype without a budget, requiring us to be resourceful and require alternative materials to construct the prototypes.

Another challenge we faced is our unfamiliarity in Arduino, requiring us to experiment and take time to figure out how to use the temperature sensor and the LCD screen.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We have applied knowledge of thermodynamics gained in a classroom environment to a real life application and we overcame our inexperience in Arduino to build a functional prototype in a reasonable time.

What we learned

We have gained a toehold into Arduino and the world of coding and practice our project management skills in a TIGHT timeline.

What's next for Patch the wall

Research of the polymer that will be used in the expanding foam as well as the development of the easy to use, refillable spray cans via additive manufacturing.