eak24
commented
6 years ago A new thought is to not have ribs. And instead just let the tank material bend under the pressure. Turns out the bending isn't that bad. Over a 1.5' box, you can see in this simulation that the max bending at the side walls is only 2.4 mm.
The outer box is the water-proof box that holds all the various plant components. It is an open, rigid box that will be sealed with EPDM (food grade). Within the box, all the partitions that will define the water path geometry do not need to be water-tight. This way we concentrate our concern to the seals only on the outer corners. To make the sidewalls strong enough, we plan to add large PVC ribs that run perpendicular to the side wall. These will become increasingly numerous as we reach the bottom.