U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC)
34 episodes
1 month ago
Satisfy your curiosity and learn how some of our country’s smartest engineers and scientists are solving many of the toughest challenges facing the nation and the Warfighter. The U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) is comprised of seven research laboratories across four states, and one of its greatest strengths is its ability to combine the expertise from multiple laboratories into powerful, cross-disciplinary projects. Each month, we dive into one of these complex problems across its broad civil works and military mission space and ask ERDC’s world-class researchers about how they are discovering, developing and delivering practical cutting-edge solutions that make the world safer and better.
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Satisfy your curiosity and learn how some of our country’s smartest engineers and scientists are solving many of the toughest challenges facing the nation and the Warfighter. The U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) is comprised of seven research laboratories across four states, and one of its greatest strengths is its ability to combine the expertise from multiple laboratories into powerful, cross-disciplinary projects. Each month, we dive into one of these complex problems across its broad civil works and military mission space and ask ERDC’s world-class researchers about how they are discovering, developing and delivering practical cutting-edge solutions that make the world safer and better.
#31: Wellbot: An innovative system to maintain relief wells
Power of ERDC
30 minutes 29 seconds
10 months ago
#31: Wellbot: An innovative system to maintain relief wells
The nation’s levees and dams depend upon relief wells to alleviate underground pressure when water levels are high. However, microorganisms and natural chemicals in the water gradually leave a residue that clogs the wells’ porous screen walls, reducing their practical value and increasing the risk of dam or levee failure.
Existing maintenance methods are costly, dangerous and labor intensive. To improve this process, ERDC has developed an autonomous system that can clean relief wells in a safer and more cost-effective manner. Wellbot uses ultraviolet light and an oscillating wire brush to remove biofilm and chemical scale from the well screen. Costing about $5,000, the reusable system can be programmed to treat a relief well in days and then deployed to treat another.
We discuss Wellbot with Taylor Rycroft, a research environmental engineer at ERDC’s Environmental Laboratory.
We talk about relief wells (2:51), the current challenges of maintaining them (6:57), and what led to the development of Wellbot (18:48). We also discuss Wellbot’s capabilities (10:30), the collaborative effort that launched it (19:49) and other ways this technology can be applied (26:43).
For more information on the Power of ERDC podcast, visit https://www.PowerofERDCPodcast.org.
Power of ERDC
Satisfy your curiosity and learn how some of our country’s smartest engineers and scientists are solving many of the toughest challenges facing the nation and the Warfighter. The U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) is comprised of seven research laboratories across four states, and one of its greatest strengths is its ability to combine the expertise from multiple laboratories into powerful, cross-disciplinary projects. Each month, we dive into one of these complex problems across its broad civil works and military mission space and ask ERDC’s world-class researchers about how they are discovering, developing and delivering practical cutting-edge solutions that make the world safer and better.
