Capacitance sensors for measuring suspended sediment concentration

Measurements of suspended sediment concentration are of importance in soil erosion research and soil and water conservation practices and monitoring. A method of measuring sediment concentration with capacitance sensors was advanced in this study. The relationships between the sediment concentration in flowing water and the output of capacitance sensor, as affected by temperature, flow velocity, soil types and salt contents were experimentally investigated with two types of capacitance sensors. The temperature used in the experiments ranged from 0 to 40 degrees centigrade. Salt concentrations (NaCl) in the flowing water ranged from 0 to 5 g/L and the flow velocity varied between 0.5 to 2.0 m/s. Two types of soil (a loam and a sandy soil) with sediment concentration up to 70% were studied. The results showed that suspended sediment concentrations, over a wide range, were linearly correlated with the outputs of capacitance sensors. The outputs of the capacitance sensor increased with temperature, with little influence from flow velocity, soil types and salt concentration. The results suggest that capacitance sensors may be used for sediment concentration measurement of flowing water.