Project Overview
Monitoring water levels is an important process in environmental and agricultural research and consultation. This kind of information can be used to monitor flow patterns and major storm events, study watershed boundaries, and conduct nutrient analysis. Most numerous ways to study flow depth incorporate the use of some kind of transducer or pressure sensor. Pressure transducers were developed in the 1960’s in order to provide a much more accurate method of analyzing, recording, and transferring hydrological depth data for use in research. These sensors are still widely used in many different fields due to their ease of use and their relatively inexpensive price.
These devices are typically used by fixing the sensor to the bed or bottom of a stream, well, or other body of water. The cables attached to these devices typically have a small tube inside them that compares the atmospheric pressure to the pressure read by the sensor. The cable leads from the submerged depth sensor to the surface where it is attached to some form of storage device. These submersible transducers use an internal stress sensor to detect the amount of pressure force applied to some form of isolated air pocket inside of the sensor. Pressure acting on that stress sensor will fluctuate relative to the depth that the sensor is fixed at. The sensor will then compare this pressure to the current atmospheric pressure and then compute internal calculations that will translate to a depth reading. In order for an accurate set of readings, the device must remain stationary in the body of water.
Various pressure analysis sensors used in transducers
While pressure transducers are most commonly used to monitor water levels, high quality transducers can be expensive. Many devices require the data to be collected on-site, a time-consuming task which carries an additional cost of labor. This project will provide a cost-effective solution to the arduous and expensive process of accurately measuring water levels in wells.
The main objective of this project is to develop an improved design of current pressure transducers and the data transmission process by integrating a wireless, real-time monitoring system and improve the user interface experience. Through the use of cellular data, users will be able to both receive alerts of malfunctions and remotely control the device. Which will remove the need to manually collect data, as the collected data will be automatically sent to an online source at set intervals.
Source:
Freeman, L. A., Carpenter, M. C., Rosenberry, D. O., Rousseau, J. P., Unger, R., & McLean, J. S. (2004). Use of Submersible Pressure Transducers in Water-Resource Investigations. Instruments for Measurement of Water Levels. Reston, Virgina: U.S. Geological Survey.