The cooperation projet between the Gesellschaft für Planung, Maschinen- und Mühlenbau Erhard Muhr mbH and the Research Institute Obernach is funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) as part of the “Central Innovation Program for SMEs (ZIM)" . The aim of the project is to develop a new cleaning system for the comprehensive removal of plastic waste over the entire width and relevant flow depth of a river. The innovative concept is optimized with regard to the efficiency of waste removal taking into account the fluid-particle interactions and the hydraulic interactions between cleaning system and flow.
Experimental Setup in the Open Air Area of the VAO | Photo: Uli Benz / TUM
Representative Plastic Particles | Photo: Uli Benz / TUM
Stopped Plastic Particles | Photo: Uli Benz / TUM
Arnd Hartlieb and Yannic Fuchs at the Experimental Setup | Photo: Uli Benz / TUM
Test Run with PS-Cups
The overarching project goal is the comprehensive proof of the functionality of the innovative cleaning concept and the optimization of defined modules and parameters by means of physical model tests. The project deals with exciting research questions in the field of the transport processes of various garbage and plastic particles in rivers and fluid-particle interactions. For this research project, VAO offers optimal prerequisites for operating detail models up to a model scale of 1: 1 in the open-air site and for realizing models of the entire system on a smaller scale. The project is divided into the following project phases:
| Phase I | Identification and Analysis of Relevant River Systems incl. Hydraulic Conditions | |
| Phase II | Conception of the Innovative Cleaning System icl. Defined Modules | |
| Phase III | Optimization of the Modules in Physical Model Tests in the Open Air Area of the VAO | |
| Phase IV | Optimization of the Overall System in Physical Model Tests in the Laboratories of the VAO |