John Behm

Engineering Portfolio

Water Cube Exhibit Refurbishment and Redesign

Project Overview

The Water Cube is a large interactive exhibit at the Fort Collins Museum of Discovery featuring eight user-controlled water jets inside a glass enclosure. Guests manipulate external handles to direct water streams onto wheels, levers, and musical elements, creating motion and sound.

Originally inspired by a similar exhibit at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle, the Water Cube was installed in 2017. After nearly a decade of continuous use, the exhibit had developed several reliability and maintenance issues that negatively affected both visitor experience and staff workload.

As part of a volunteer engineering team, I helped evaluate, redesign, and implement upgrades to improve the exhibit’s performance, durability, and maintainability.

Project Objectives

The primary goals of the refurbishment effort were to:

  • Improve water clarity and system cleanliness.
  • Verify that the existing pump system provided adequate performance.
  • Increase nozzle reliability and reduce maintenance requirements.
  • Reduce water leakage from moving handle assemblies.
  • Improve the audibility of the exhibit’s musical elements.

My Contributions

  • Evaluated pump and filtration system performance.
  • Conducted flow testing and troubleshooting of the water delivery system.
  • Selected and integrated a new ultraviolet filtration system.
  • Designed and iteratively improved new 3D-printed water nozzles using Autodesk Fusion.
  • Assisted in redesigning sealing features to reduce leakage around user controls.
  • Helped design and install an audio amplification system.

Existing Problems

Water Quality and Pressure

Museum staff reported persistent concerns regarding water clarity, as well as uncertainty about whether inadequate water pressure was contributing to poor exhibit performance.

Additionally, portions of the tubing network contained potential pinch points and routing issues that could restrict flow.

Nozzle Reliability

The original nozzles consisted of multiple small metal components that frequently loosened or separated during operation. These failures resulted in frequent maintenance interventions and exhibit downtime.

Water Leakage

The exhibit uses external handles connected to internal nozzles through spherical joints mounted in the walls of the cube. Water could easily escape through the openings surrounding these moving joints, creating maintenance challenges and increasing cleanup requirements.

Limited Audio Experience

Although the exhibit contains numerous musical and sound-producing elements, most sounds were difficult to hear through the glass enclosure and in the ambient noise of a busy museum environment.

Engineering Approach

Water System Evaluation and Filtration Upgrade

To determine whether the existing pump system was undersized, flow testing was conducted on the circulation system. Testing confirmed that the pump and reservoir configuration were adequately sized for the application.

Following the evaluation:

  • Tubing was rerouted in several locations to eliminate potential flow restrictions and pinch points.
  • An ultraviolet (UV) pond filtration system was selected to replace a previously failed filtration unit.
  • The new filter was installed in-line with the existing circulation loop.

Results

Within one week of installation, museum staff reported noticeably improved water clarity and reduced maintenance requirements.

Nozzle Redesign

The original nozzle assemblies contained numerous individual metal parts and experienced repeated failures in service.

To improve reliability, the team pursued a simplified nozzle architecture manufactured through additive manufacturing.

Design Requirements

The redesigned nozzle needed to:

  • Reduce the total number of components.
  • Maintain adequate water jet performance.
  • Interface reliably with existing tubing.
  • Minimize leakage.
  • Be easily replaceable and inexpensive to manufacture.

Design Process

I used Autodesk Fusion to design a series of replacement nozzles and produced prototypes using FDM 3D printing.

Rapid prototyping enabled multiple design iterations to address:

  • Water pressure and jet quality.
  • Hose attachment geometry.
  • Sealing performance.
  • Manufacturability and ease of assembly.

Several prototype revisions were tested and refined before arriving at the final configuration.

Results

The final nozzle design substantially reduced part count and improved overall reliability while providing a low-cost, easily reproducible replacement solution.

Leakage Mitigation

One of the most challenging aspects of the project involved reducing leakage around the handle penetrations through the glass enclosure.

Because users must freely manipulate the handles, the design required a balance between:

  • Effective water sealing.
  • Low operating friction.
  • Durability under heavy public use.

Completely sealing the spherical joint proved impractical. Instead, a protective plastic boot was incorporated to shield the ball joint and redirect water back into the enclosure.

This approach significantly reduced water escaping from the exhibit while preserving ease of use.

Audio System Upgrade

To improve the interactive experience, an audio amplification system was added to the exhibit.

The system included:

  • A microphone mounted inside the cube to capture sounds generated by the exhibit.
  • Speakers installed on both sides of the cabinet to project sound to guests.
  • A high-pass filter to attenuate low-frequency noise generated by pumps and flowing water.

Results

The upgrade dramatically improved the audibility of the exhibit’s musical components, allowing guests to more fully experience the interactive features.

Key Takeaways

  • Evaluated and improved a real-world fluid handling system operating in a public environment.
  • Applied rapid prototyping and iterative design methods to solve reliability issues.
  • Designed components for manufacturability, maintainability, and long-term durability.
  • Balanced competing design requirements including sealing, friction, and user interaction.
  • Contributed to a multidisciplinary refurbishment effort involving mechanical, fluid, and audio systems.