Simultaneous Measurement of Flow Depth and Water Surface Elevation in a Flume Using Multi-Point Ultrasonic Sensors

Abstract

Generally, flow depth and water surface elevation are measured during flume experiments conducted in the hydraulics laboratory. Traditional measuring tools such as depth measuring sticks or depth gauges are often used. For some unsteady flow experiments, it required to collect data simultaneously in many locations. This required to install many measuring equipment, and many technicians were requested to measure at the same time. This study aims to present a study on water elevation measurement techniques by integrating ultrasonic sensors with an Arduino board, enhanced by adding temperature and humidity sensors to improve measurement accuracy. This system enables to measure the flow depth and the water surface elevation among multiple locations simultaneously. Additionally, the measurement data obtained from the ultrasonic sensor system was compared to traditional methods to evaluate the measurement discrepancies. It is hoped that the results of this study will be useful for applying this technique to other type of open channel flume experiments in the future.