Development of an Innovative Computer-Controlled Water Deairing System for Hydraulic Testing of Geosynthetics

摘要

Use of deaired water is essential in many hydraulic tests conducted on geosynthetics. This is because air bubbles present in tap water adversely affect the test results. Additionally, long-term flow should be maintained, which requires large quantities of deaired water. An innovative computer-controlled fully automated system was developed to provide this continuous supply of deaired water and the approach is presented in this paper. The system is composed of two water deairing tanks and a control unit (hardware and software). These units were constructed to take advantage of the most recent technology available in the area of instrumentation. The efficiency of the system was checked through gradient ratio tests conducted on various soil/geotextile combinations.