Turbidity sensor for determination of concentration, ash presence and particle diameter of sediment suspensions

摘要

The present work addresses the need for low-cost turbidity sensors felt in the context of an ongoing research project on enhanced soil erosion following wildfire in Portugal. To this end, a system based on plastic optical fibre was developed and tested, including against a commercially-available system. The performance of the sensor was tested using artificially-created samples with a wide range of concentration of three types of very distinct materials, six particle size classes of ashes and real runoff samples collected at the slope and catchment scale in a recently burned area.