The Artis Problem

Abstract

The Artis aquarium has had difficulty maintaining a reasonable temperature in the recently install mammoth sea water tanks during the peak of summer. At this time the approximately 400 000 liters of water may be as much as 3 degrees Celsius too hot. This represents a considerable amount of energy to dissipate. Any solution to this problem must take into account the limited budget of the zoo, the heritage status of the building and the health of the fish in the tank. In this report, we analyse the major sources of energy entering and leaving the system. From this analysis, we find that the most effective method of reducing the water temperature is to increase the amount of evaporation from the system.