Hope3D: Project REAFF
This object has been checked for printability, but did not pass the test and was deemed not printable. This object is still shareable and people with this link will be able to see and download the object, so please make sure you watch out and progress with care!
×Hope3D: Project REAFF
3D
Project REAFF (Rescuing Earth’s Aquatic Flora & Fauna) entails the deployment of dozens of floating rigs in the great barrier reef north of Australia as the first location with the aim to preserve vulnerable coral habitats and biodiversity responsible for the primary source of protein for over three billion people. This is part of United Nations Goal #14: Life Below Water.
It is not going very well with our oceans. They contain 97% of all Earth’s water and over 99% of its living space by volume, moreover contribute more than 5% of global GDP or over three trillion US dollar. The oceans together absorb 30% of carbon dioxide so it is important to keep them in good health. Yet fish resources are rapidly depleting due to overfishing, 20% of all reefs have been destroyed due to global warming and half of the remaining reefs are under risk of collapse.
Project REAFF aims to change this by offering 3D printed structures that aid in the thriving of coral species. Corals require a specific temperature to do well, and generate a stress response at just 1.5 degrees over their optimal temperature, causing them to shake off the parts needed for successful reproduction. Essentially, this only leaves the lifeless skeleton of the coral. Having corals regain life often entails migration to more habitable areas and combating malignant seaweeds and algae that exist due to eutrophication and other ecological imbalances.
Project REAFF’s objective is to tackle this matter at the core and contribute to a lessening of ocean temperatures while offering livable and expandable habitats for species of corals. Its core technologies are:
1. 3D Printing to develop large pore lattice structures as a platform for coral remigrations
2. Absorption Refrigeration as an effective method to cool ocean waters while requiring only a heat source
3. Solar Heat as collected by large inflatable mirrors that also provide shadow areas at the bottom of the reef
The inflatable spherical mirrors are 20 meters in diameter and sit on a steel platform resting on four buoys the size of a small car. The steel structure can be a welded rig or 3D printed in 316 stainless steel by DSLM machines for weight saving and pertaining to the progressive values of the project.
The inflatable further offers eight panes of advertising space, each 7 x 6 meters in size, and includes a strolling corridor with transparent floor for maintenance and tourist visits, where people can learn something about the project and the oceans on each platform. The idea is that when people increasingly share the same living space as the corals and other marine species, we will start caring more and more about its well-being.
On top of the mast central in the inflatable unit is a thermal energy collector that transfers solar heat to the refrigerators located inside the 3D printed Hope modules up to 20 meters deep at the bottom of the reef. Every platform can carry dozens of Hope modules, and each being 1 meter in diameter and 2 meters tall, they will have an effect. The refrigerators themselves essentially consist of plumbing and can be produced at relatively low cost.
3D printing of lattice structures can also be done at reasonable budget by FDM technology such as BigRep’s PRO printer that offers over a cubic meter of printing volume. We have run extensive mechanical tests on lattice structures and opt for the Kelvin cell as being a superior design in almost all aspects over alternative designs such as Voronoi cells, octet and tetrahedrals, trabecular structures, honeycomb and pyritohedrons. The non-structural material that composes the bottom of the oval pill-shaped module is a custom mechanically strong lattice with larger pore sizes and more randomness which in the medical field has been proven to promote cell migrations.
We at IDZone have worked on and researched this concept on and off for almost a year and are happy to have transformed it into an implementation that we believe will work to conserve the most indispensable species of the oceans, and contribute to the initiative of the Hope3D and MyMiniFactory platform.
The STL files included are to be scaled down for producing a scale model of the Hope Module. We recommend not going below a 1:10 scale.
| Status | Rejected |