Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Polytechnic Institute of New York University, Brooklyn, NY 11201, USA.
Sensors (Basel). 2010;10(12):11512-29. doi: 10.3390/s101211512. Epub 2010 Dec 15.
In this paper, the feasibility of off-the-shelf buoyant fluorescent microspheres as particle tracers in turbid water flows is investigated. Microspheres' fluorescence intensity is experimentally measured and detected in placid aqueous suspensions of increasing concentrations of clay to simulate typical conditions occurring in natural drainage networks. Experiments are conducted in a broad range of clay concentrations and particle immersion depths by using photoconductive cells and image-based sensing technologies. Results obtained with both methodologies exhibit comparable trends and show that the considered particles are fairly detectable in critically turbid water flows. Further information on performance and integration of the studied microspheres in low-cost measurement instrumentation for field observations is obtained through experiments conducted in a custom built miniature water channel. This experimental characterization provides a first assessment of the feasibility of commercially available buoyant fluorescent beads in the analysis of high turbidity surface water flows. The proposed technology may serve as a minimally invasive sensing system for hazardous events, such as pollutant diffusion in natural streams and flash flooding due to extreme rainfall.
本文研究了现成的浮力荧光微球作为示踪粒子在混浊水流中的可行性。通过实验测量和检测微球在浓度不断增加的粘土平静水悬浮液中的荧光强度，模拟了在天然排水网络中常见的典型条件。实验在广泛的粘土浓度和颗粒浸入深度范围内进行，使用光电导电池和基于图像的传感技术。两种方法获得的结果都表现出相似的趋势，表明在所考虑的混浊度条件下，这些颗粒可以相当容易地被检测到。通过在定制的微型水道中进行实验，进一步获得了关于研究微球在用于现场观测的低成本测量仪器中的性能和集成的信息。这种实验表征首次评估了商业上可用的浮力荧光珠在分析高浊度地表水流动中的可行性。所提出的技术可以作为一种微创感测系统，用于监测自然溪流中的污染物扩散和因极端降雨引发的洪水等危险事件。
