Wang, S. orcid.org/0000-0002-9195-9780, Corredor Garcia, J.L., Davidson, J. et al. (1 more author) (2020) Conductance-based interface detection for multi-phase pipe flow. Sensors, 20 (20). 5854.
Abstract
Sediment and flow depth monitoring in sewers is important for informing flow models and for predicting and mitigating against sewer blockage formation and surcharge. In this study, a novel sensor based on conductance measurement has been developed and tested under a laboratory environment and validated by a finite-element model. The relative conductance is measured between pairs of adjacent electrodes to provide a conductance profile along the sensor length. A piecewise linear relationship between conductance and electrode length was derived and the interface positions between sediment, water, and air can be determined from the profile. The results demonstrated that the root mean square error of the model and the measured interface level are within 1.4% and 2.6% of sensor’s measurement range. An error distribution of interface height shows that all anticipated errors are within the resolution of the electrode length increments. Furthermore, it was found that the conductivity of the measured medium is proportional to the gradient of the linear relationship of conductance and electrode length. It could therefore prove a valuable new tool for the accurate quantification of sediment and flow levels in sewer conduits, coastal environments, drainage systems for transport networks, and other industrial or academic applications.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | electrical conductance sensor; multi-phase interface detection; medium electrical conductivity measurement; low-cost sensor |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Engineering (Sheffield) > Department of Civil and Structural Engineering (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 03 Nov 2020 10:29 |
Last Modified: | 03 Nov 2020 10:29 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | MDPI AG |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.3390/s20205854 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:167308 |