Portable meters monitor sewage flow patterns

Scottish Water has used Micronics PDFM IV ultrasonic clamp-on portable flowmeters for the flow and load surveys being undertaken to establish load profiles within 111 treatment works sites

Scottish Water - Scientific Services in Dundee are undertaking surveys of 111 treatment works sites to establish the current infrastructure capacity as part of their overall development programme.

For this survey they are using Micronics PDFM IV portable instruments to monitor wastewater flow rates and establish load profiles within the treatment works.

The objective is to establish the demand profile and the effectiveness of existing plant to determine development requirements.

The Micronics instruments have proved to be a valuable tool, enabling the engineers to establish the diurnal sewage patterns and analyse the performance of existing plant.

Having considered the various measurement alternatives, ultrasonic, clamp-on, non contact measurement was selected due to the ease of installation and operational benefits associated with the non-contact technology.

And Micronics were selected as the supplier due to a combination of their experience with ultrasonic flow measurement technology and their helpful pre-order service and guidance including a free trial/demonstration offer.

Two Micronics PDFM IV instruments were purchased as a package.

The PDFM IV is a portable instrument, suitable for use on full pipes.

And they have the capability to measure and log influent and or effluent flow and totalised flow rates within the treatment works.

The survey project is currently 50% complete and the instruments have been successfully used on various sites.

Scottish Water have found them easy to install and simple to use, a key requirement to provide a fast return in valuable information for a minimal investment in time! The software is user friendly with good graphing facilities to identify peak demand and duration peaks using a range of sample rates selected by Scottish Water to establish flow and load profiles over 28 day logging periods.

Scottish Water is pleased with the Micronics products, which have performed well and the pre-order and post order service response has been good.

The instruments have been successful and the information gathered has made a valuable contribution to the survey project: the potential for further use of the instruments within Scottish Water is extensive.

This project is an example of how clamp-on ultrasonic technology can be successfully implemented to gather information as part of an overall water and wastewater management process and there is potential for replication on similar sites.

Back to top