MODEL C5 ULTRASONIC DOPPLER FLOWMETER   Installations

Water and Waste Digest feature article "Problem Solvers" March 1997 Doppler flow meter helps measure flow of the Rio Grande   Delta Lake Irrigation District is one of the oldest pumping stations located on the Rio Grande River just south of Weslaco, Texas. Established in 1940 for the purpose of providing water for agricultural irrigation and municipal needs, this station was state of the art with it's Fairbanks Morse 55"pumps and piston engines. At this time the Rio Grande Valley area was very sparsely populated and water for any need was abundant. The only provision for measurement then was a rectangular concrete gate marked in feet and inches located downstream about 100 yards from the discharge. Rapid growth in the last 20 years has brought about a greater demand for water and a new attitude towards conservation and measurement of these precious natural resources. Many of the pumping stations in this area had implemented use of the propeller type flow meter. These were state of the art 20 years ago but suffered greatly from the natural and man made debris often found in these large waterways. The new attitude towards conservation and measurement no longer permitted the associated down time for repairs and inefficiency of the propeller type meter. It was evident that such a simple thing as river or canal water was extremely difficult to measure. The engineers of the COMPU-FLOW™ Doppler ultrasonic flow meter had developed a new unit to better deal with these environments and provide all the necessary engineering units that would be required. The clamp on sensors worked quite well as long as the pipe wall was smooth and parallel. When the pipe material was old, cracked, or rusted, it became almost impossible to obtain repeatable data. After an unsuccessful attempt at measuring river water in 55" steel lines with clamp on sensors, we drilled into the pipe to examine the conditions. Visual inspection revealed 1/2 in deep rust pits and flakes of corrosion banding half the circumference. This was almost as bad a conductor of sound as concrete. Our engineers then designed a very universal set of flush mounted wetted stainless steel sensors that mounted directly into the pipe wall . End of problem! We found the wetted sensors would work in an unlimited number of harsh problem environments from canals to sewer plants. Repeatable readings were now the norm regardless of the pipe material. The next hurdle was to address the ever changing consistency of the river water and it's contaminants. These often consisted of hydrilla, moss, sand, algae, fish, plastic bottles, tractor tires, palm tree trunks, and even a 55 gallon steel barrel. Particle count would change daily due to rain fall or rate of release from the reservoir. The PH varied greatly depending upon tidal back flows or the amount of toxins industry dumped into the river up stream. Without the wetted transducer and the new CLT-V4 circuitry with AGC (automatic gain control) it would have been virtually impossible to obtain consistent data. There are hundreds of successful installations on farms and river pumping stations as well as municipal and industrial applications. We have installed over 500 of the COMPU-FLOW™ ultrasonic Doppler flow meter systems since we introduced the "DIGITAL SIGNAL" transducer. The TNRCC constantly monitors these river pumping stations using CompuFlow portable Doppler flow meters with clamp on sensors. Delta Lake Irrigation District has had their Doppler systems in place since July of 1990. The systems have no moving parts and are virtually maintenance free. There are four of the flow meters in a row and the transducers are located as far as 300' from the displays. Martin, the plant operator, can almost tell what size of debis is in the pump by watching the display of the COMPU-FLOW™. The wetted sensors track so well that the plant operator just 1/4 mile up the river, where 10 of the COMPU-FLOW™ systems have been in place for over 6 years, is able to detect when one of the natural gas pumps is off pace with a glance at the display of the COMPU-FLOW™. The COMPU-FLOW™ ULTRASONIC DOPPLER FLOW METER SYSTEM is user friendly, affordable, rugged, and above all repeatable on a daily basis. Our ability to design custom sensors makes this system adaptable to virtually any flow situation you can imagine. From the cleanest of liquids to the dirtiest of sludges, from pipe ID's ranging 1/2 inch to 300 inches, the COMPU-FLOW™ DOPPLER SYSTEM can solve your flow meter applications.   Have you a CompuFlow installation that you would like to show off and share here? Email (or send a snail mail) jpgs or photos and a short story or description and we'll put our webmaster right to work on it! Click here

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