Flow Monitors

[vmmontano]

I used acoustic meters for open channel agricultural purposes. I have used the American Sigma 910, Unidata Starflow, Rocky Mountain Florat, Mace Agriflo and MGD ADFM. I also used the Global Water, MM Flo Mate and Sontek FloTracker for point velocity. I tried the Sontec River Surveyor and was very pleased with it's ability.

The only true profiler is the MGD and uses RDI technology which is now Teledyne. The American Sigma and Unidata Starflow (1 mHz blast) are very similar, except Sigma is Windows based and the Starflow is DOS based. The American Sigma is now sold by Hach and is a versatile unit. Based on some input ,Sontek designed its newer shallow water units using YSI technology. I have since gotten out of accoustic meters and specialized in low-end fabricated structures for accurate flows.

For pressure transducers try the Druck or INW PT2X.

On the larger structures we have Accusonics. To calibrate radial gates I have used the MGD, however if the water is too turbid it will not output a depth, due to too many depth returns.

If you just want data from the MGD and cannot sacrifice the long upload time to, use a separate external datalogger like the HOBO.

The ITRC at Cal Poly SLO has published results on studies they have conducted with various dataloggers, pressure tranducers, bubblers and level sensors.

For open channel, I will take a long throated flume with a level from a Milltronics Probe and Winflume formula in a Dryden R2 datalogger any day. If you have partial pipe applications smaller than 10" diameter, Good Luck.

Victor
IID-IMMU

[david walker]

I agree that the Detectronic Buhler Montec is still the most reliable area velocity flow meter. I am that convinced I have rounded up most of the original R&D guys from Detectronic later Buhler Montec to build a new flow meter on the original Detectronic flow meter specification and its looking good.

info@detecinstruments.co.uk

[cparrish60]

Greetings,

I see many different issues being covered here in a single thread. Different velocity measurement technologies, different flow measurement applications, and different manufacturers.

Before buying any type of flow meter, get references from people using the same meter or technology in your same application. Stormwater is different from sewer, pipes are different from channels and streams, etc.

I've done sewer flow monitoring for quite a few years, and I have learned many lessons the hard way. For general sewer flow surveying, Isco's A-V meters are excellent. Sigma and Marsh-McBirney have decent meters depending on your application, but ADS's equipment is just awful, and expensive. Their flow measurement service claims are grossly exagerrated. If you need to accurately measure flows for billing, I recommend that you install a flume (preferably a Parshall if possible) with an ultrasonic level transmitter.

I'm relatively new to stormwater channel metering, but Isco/MGD's ADFM(accoustic Doppler flow meter) looks great, and several independent studies have been done that verify their accuracy claims.

Just be careful about choosing your solutions, and do your homework beforehand.

Chris Parrish
Atlanta, GA

[david walker]

I think Chris speaks with experience and it is very wise to do your home work when buying any type of flow monitors.

Has anyone tried the Sonic Sens from Radcom for Combined Storm Overflow monitoring. I have used it extensively in Scotland and it works well. The Sonic Sens uses SMS to transfer the data remotely and it has a 5year battery life when logging at 5min sample rates, so no worry on power requirements.

You can send it a txt message from a mobile phone to interogate it even when your miles away from the actual site.

The unit can also be used as a flow meter when used with a primary devise such as a flume or weir.


see link below
http://www.radcom.co.uk/c2/uploads/R...s20060929p.pdf