Does the tube diameter matter?
Human Health and Behavior
Alia Place
- Grade:
- 5
- Teacher:
- Rebecca Welter
I have a VP shunt because of hydrocephalus. I always wondered if my tube was large inside would more water go through and help my head hurt less. One day I want to help find a way for people to have a shunt and not hurt so much or worry about a clogged tube. I found in my project that the diameter I have currently was the most affective. I will keep finding new ways to help others.
Wow, a great project and very personal. Well done. Thank you for sharing!
This is an excellent project connecting engineering and medicine. I especially appreciated the personal connection to hydrocephalus and the use of a model to understand how VP shunts work. Your experiment clearly showed how tubing diameter affects fluid flow, and your observation about air bubbles slowing flow was insightful. In the future, improving the materials section and including more repeated trials would strengthen the study. Great job exploring a real biomedical engineering problem!