Lab Proceedure
The laboratory experiment took place in the AMEC laboratory in Surrey, BC. This is a lab where engineers, scientists, and technicians do tests for various projects on various materials. A lab technician showed us the lab and also explained how to work safely.
Step 1:
Before the actual test starts, we warmed up the oven at 110 degrees Celsius to prepare the fiberglass filters. This was done by putting the filters in the tin cups and drying them at 110 degrees Celsius, and weighing and recording their weights before and after.
Step 2:
Next, we placed the dried filters onto a clean filtering flask-wrinkled side up. Remember to shake the sample bottle first, or mix the water sample with the stir stick to make sure all sediment is re-suspended and floating. Then, we poured the water in the manual plastic pump, and then tighten up the top and bottom portions with the filter in the middle. We poured the water sample in portions of approximately 250 mL. Then we started pumping manually. If the filter got clogged too quickly during the process with too much sediment, the pumping was becoming much harder. We used the entire volume of water sample from each sample. We then recorded the volume of water for each sample in the graduated glass beakers and took a picture of them to remember how much water we filtered.
Step 3:
The third step in this experiment was drying the filters with the sample on them at the temperature of 110 degrees Celsius for 1 hour. All samples were dried the exact same time. The samples (in the same tin cups) were weighted as soon as they were taken from the oven, but reaching room temperature. We weighted them on a scale that measured to 1 of 1,000 of a gram (or one milligram)
Step 4:
The final step of the experiment was to record all the weights in the table on the note pad, and then calculate the amount of solids on the filter by subtracting the weight of the dry filter without the sample (initial weight) from the same dry filter but with the sediment sample on it (final weight). The difference of the two is the weight of the solids (suspended sediments).
Step 5:
In step 5, we calculated the concentrations of solids, because not all the water sample volumes were equal. So the concentrations were calculated by dividing the weight of solids in milligrams to the volume of the water sample measured in liters. The result was in milligrams per liter, also mg/L. All data was written down on the note pad, and was transferred to the Excel spreadsheet later on at home.
Step 1:
Before the actual test starts, we warmed up the oven at 110 degrees Celsius to prepare the fiberglass filters. This was done by putting the filters in the tin cups and drying them at 110 degrees Celsius, and weighing and recording their weights before and after.
Step 2:
Next, we placed the dried filters onto a clean filtering flask-wrinkled side up. Remember to shake the sample bottle first, or mix the water sample with the stir stick to make sure all sediment is re-suspended and floating. Then, we poured the water in the manual plastic pump, and then tighten up the top and bottom portions with the filter in the middle. We poured the water sample in portions of approximately 250 mL. Then we started pumping manually. If the filter got clogged too quickly during the process with too much sediment, the pumping was becoming much harder. We used the entire volume of water sample from each sample. We then recorded the volume of water for each sample in the graduated glass beakers and took a picture of them to remember how much water we filtered.
Step 3:
The third step in this experiment was drying the filters with the sample on them at the temperature of 110 degrees Celsius for 1 hour. All samples were dried the exact same time. The samples (in the same tin cups) were weighted as soon as they were taken from the oven, but reaching room temperature. We weighted them on a scale that measured to 1 of 1,000 of a gram (or one milligram)
Step 4:
The final step of the experiment was to record all the weights in the table on the note pad, and then calculate the amount of solids on the filter by subtracting the weight of the dry filter without the sample (initial weight) from the same dry filter but with the sediment sample on it (final weight). The difference of the two is the weight of the solids (suspended sediments).
Step 5:
In step 5, we calculated the concentrations of solids, because not all the water sample volumes were equal. So the concentrations were calculated by dividing the weight of solids in milligrams to the volume of the water sample measured in liters. The result was in milligrams per liter, also mg/L. All data was written down on the note pad, and was transferred to the Excel spreadsheet later on at home.