Design Report for PS-105 Data Acquisition System for Biofouling Studies of Heat Exchangers in Seawater

摘要

An electronic system that is well-suited for acquiring OTEC heat exchanger fouling data from surface installations has been designed, constructed, laboratory-tested* and field-proven. The CMU device for monitoring the degradation of heat transfer rates due to fouling is equipped with electrical transducers for measuring seawater temperature, flow velocity and heat transfer coefficient. The function of the electronics system described herein is to power the transducers, to boost the low-level output signals from the transducers and to transmit these amplified signals to a central control box where this raw data is sampled at precisely-defined intervals and transferred to a computer-compatible medium. In its present form the system can accommodate two CMU devices, but more could be added by external multiplexing. This system has performed well in acquiring fouling data from Caribbean waters near St. Croix. (ERA citation 04:007699)