Field Testing of Prototype Acoustic Emission Sewer Flowmeter

摘要

This investigation concerns verifying the operating principles of the acoustic emission flowmeter (U.S. Patent 3,958,458) in the natural environment of three different storm sewer field sites in Nassau County, New York. The flowmeter is a novel, passive, nonintrusive method that uses the local sound resulting from the partial transformation of the flow energy at a channel or conduit discontinuity. Any change of sewer cross section or flow direction qualifies as a discontinuity. The result show that the flowmeter principles hold true in large storm sewers of 60 inch (1.5 m) diameter and for flow rates up to about 7500 gpm. A manhole appears to be suitable for sensor installation. The relation of sound signal intensity to flow rate at full scale sites appears amenable to small scale laboratory model simulation according to scaling laws.