Water brake - sufficient?

[Benjlv]

Our team has been using a superflow 901 water brake for a number of years. We started with the original 1980's control system with little luck i am told and moved onto a labview based control system. We still are not able to hold loads well, but the control system has a quite a bit of developement room left. My question is if anyone else uses this same dyno brake and further if they are able to hold loads with it consistently while tuning.

I have researched the topic extensively and have a series of steps planned out to get the dyno working for our application the best it can, but like i said i am just looking for some feedback on other people's experience.

[Benjlv]

Our team has been using a superflow 901 water brake for a number of years. We started with the original 1980's control system with little luck i am told and moved onto a labview based control system. We still are not able to hold loads well, but the control system has a quite a bit of developement room left. My question is if anyone else uses this same dyno brake and further if they are able to hold loads with it consistently while tuning.

I have researched the topic extensively and have a series of steps planned out to get the dyno working for our application the best it can, but like i said i am just looking for some feedback on other people's experience.

[Chris Dolan]

We have a Land and Sea water brake and have had some loading problems as well. We determined that the water supply from the school is insufficient. To correct this, we are in the process of making a pumping system to supply water at the required water flowrate and pressure. Based on what I have seen, I would start with making sure your water supply meets your manufacturer's requirements. Hope this helps.

[Dallas Blake]

At Queen's we use a superflow 902 with the windyn control system and have no problems at all with holding loads. I have found that the absorber valve calibration is a huge factor in holding loads as well as executing transient tests.

[jsmooz]

Chris, we also have a Land and Sea. To get around the problem you have we used a 55gal drum and a lawn sprinkler pump. Look in Grainger for parts. We've had no problems with this setup, tho the reciculating water does get hot after ~45min of pulls/steady state tuning.


Jim

[Benjlv]

thanks for the responses guys.

Our water supply is not an issue as it is similair to what the fire department uses to put out fires in terms of flow....

I believe our issue is entirely in the control system...err lack there of a control system.

superflow also reccomended to us that we check the internal seals of the brake as well as the impeller...

as a thought you could just dump in cold water from a garden hose into your 55gallon drum to help cool the water. allow any excess water to drain off or come up with some sort of huge heat exchanger.

[Dan G]

Benj,

We do go with a continuous suppy/drain from the tap when we're doing multiple hours of dyno time. But for a single hour we just keep it free-standing without any water hookups.

I'd put up pictures, but the dyno cart is pretty ugly, and my image server is down right now.

[Chris Dolan]

Thanks for the tips Jim, we actually have already purchased parts for a similar setup. I just have to finish the fabrication of our stand for the pump and drum before we can test.