Transnational Access Project: Evaluation of new flow and quality monitoring devices for sewers

Hosting facility

BENS FLUME (UDC)

Partners involved

Universidade da Coruña (UDC), Spain
Ubertone, France
Photrack, Switzerland
Technical University of Cartagena, Spain

Duration 

17/04/2023 – 20/09/2023

About the project

The BENS flume facility at UDC was used for one of the Transnational Access (TA) of the Co-UDlabs project aiming at testing new monitoring technologies for water flow and pollutants. In this project, the Co-UDlabs partner UDC worked with two small-to-medium-enterprises (SME), Ubertone and Photrack, who are interested in taking their technology to market, and one university, the Technical University of Cartagena (UPCT).

The preparation for the practical side of the project, to install the equipment being assessed, involved a CFD modeller and 3 different technologies: an image-based non-contact device to look at surface velocities, an ultrasonic velocity profiler and a “homemade” low-cost spectrophotometer. The devices were tested for different flow conditions changing wastewater flow discharge, slope and the downwards boundary condition, which allows for limitations of the equipment to be identified and improved before the product gets to market.

There were 3 experimental phases: the first phase used wastewater without any sediment bedload; the second phase used wastewater with an artificial sediment bedload; and the final phase used wastewater with a real sediment bedload. All equipment was tested in these conditions. The experimental plan was successfully completed in 3 months and the TA group members started to work on the data collected, including a database of over 80 tests and experiments with various configurations. Two months after the testing was finished there was a full team meeting with UDC, the two SME’s and UPCT to share the results and find synergies.

Main findings

Image-based, non-contact flow monitoring equipment (DischargeKeeper by Photrack) was tested on sewer pipe flows, this is useful as sensors in contact with the water are at a higher risk of fouling which results in intensive maintenance to ensure correct functioning and wastewater is an even more extreme environment due to the biochemistry of the water and the sediments involved
A new acoustic velocity profiler (UB-Flow by Ubertone) was assessed using real wastewater that gives velocities and also gives information about suspended sediment loads.
Further work and analysis of these 2 technologies will allow for further evaluation of how sediment accumulation affects results and possibly to estimate the height of accumulated sediment.
A novel LED spectrophotometer for wastewater quality monitoring was tested on a flume. This is significant as spectrophotometers have not been applied for continuous analysis in this way previously and these tests show that this technique is suitable for the harsh sewer environments with minimal maintenance. Combined with existing models, analysis of the spectrophotometer data can determine various water quality parameters, such as TSS and COD, and give estimates on the size of solids present.

Successful outcomes:

The equipment had only been tested in the lab prior to being used in the BENS facility and it is these large-scale RI tests that allow for end users to have confidence in the technology.
The SME are testing the feasibility of the transfer of these technologies by validating and optimising an already developed technique to sewer pipes. 
Photrack is developing a new model to estimate flows from their surface velocities using the depths and flow discharge data from UDC and velocity profiles from Ubertone.
Ubertone is using the data collected to improve their processing tools and develop the use of the profiler also for estimating turbidity through the echo of the acoustic signal.
UPCT has trained and validated their model to estimate water quality using the dataset.
Further work on the data collected is ongoing, these activities being considered very important and interesting for their mid- long-term development.
This fruitful collaboration between researchers and several companies was a really interesting experience within the Co-UDlabs environment and aligned with its main objectives.

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