Smart water meter using electrical resistance tomography

Abstract

Smart flow monitoring is critical for sewer system management. Obstructions and restrictions to flow in discharge pipes are common and costly. We propose the use of electrical resistance tomography modality for the task of smart wastewater metering. This paper presents the electronics hardware design and bespoke signal processing to create an embedded sensor for measuring flow rates and flow properties, such as constituent materials in sewage or grey water discharge pipes of diameters larger than 250 mm. The dedicated analogue signal conditioning module, zero-cross switching scheme, and real-time operating system enable the system to perform low-cost serial measurements while still providing the capability of real-time capturing. The system performance was evaluated via both stationary and dynamic experiments. A data acquisition speed of 14 frames per second (fps) was achieved with an overall signal to noise ratio of at least 59.54 dB. The smallest sample size reported was 0.04% of the domain size in stationary tests, illustrating good resolution. Movements have been successfully captured in dynamic tests, with a clear definition being achieved of objects in each reconstructed image, as well as a fine overall visualization of movement.