Flow measurement in open channels by using an ultrasonic phased array sensor

Current flow measurement systems are not able to cope with severe environmental conditions and thus cannot fulfill the needs of modern flood prevention and wastewater management systems in open channels. Therefore, research has been conducted with the aim to develop an innovative sensor system which measures the flow rate across the entire cross-section and thus consequently improves the flow measurement itself. Starting point of this project is the expansion of the reflection-based ultrasonic flow measurement to the phased array technology. In this article the performance of a newly developed phased array sensor is presented to determine the velocity distribution of an open channel within a measuring range of ±60°. In areas which are out of the sensor coverage the flow can be estimated by a velocity distribution model. The effectiveness of this model-based measurement concept has been successfully verified on a open channel test bench.