Successful trial with a transit-time flow meter in a Virginia wastewater treatment plant.

Printer-Friendly Version

Overview

At a wastewater treatment plant in Virginia, they needed a flow measurement solution for their underground effluent pipes carrying the treated water. 

Trialing other products with limited success

The Virginia wastewater treatment plant had a challenging system to work with when it came to finding the right solution. It needed to fit 500 mm (20 in) and 600 mm (24 in) ductile pipes that had low-flowing effluent. Ductile Iron pipe is susceptible to scaling build up, which can make it challenging to get an acceptable signal strength with a clamp-on flow meter. Overall, the wastewater treatment plant needed something that would be simple to install, had accurate and repeatable results on a challenging pipe and location, and was able to read the flow of the low-velocity effluent. 

The wastewater treatment plant wanted to be sure that they found the right product to replace their existing solutions for their application, so they decided to trial a few products. After a few failed trials, they reached out to Pulsar Measurement’s municipal representatives in Virginia, FLOMEC Inc., to find the right solution - the PTFM 6.1 Transit-Time Flow Meter.

Why did they use a Transit-Time Flow Meter? 

The existing flow measurement solutions at the wastewater plant were mounted to receive flow readings of the influent and the effluent. The readings weren’t matching, so to verify the readings of the existing meters, they mounted the PTFM 6.1 with the SE16C sensors near the existing meters. The SE16C sensors are recommended for measuring nominal pipe sizes ranging from 300 mm (12 in) to 1,200 mm (48 in), which spanned the specification of the application. Once the sensors were mounted, they were easily powerful enough to go through the challenging Ductile Iron pipe, producing a strong signal strength with an exceptionally accurate and steady flow reading. Other flow meters that they tested could not achieve these results.  

Pulsar Measurement's Transit-Time Flow Meters prove to be successful. 

The PTFM 6.1 with SE16C sensors was the ideal solution for this Virginia wastewater treatment plant. The customer said this about the installation, “Wow! Pulsar Measurement is the first to read expected flow on these pipes.” They were so impressed by how well the solution worked for their application that they purchased six permanent TTFM 6.1 Transit-Time Flow Meters to place throughout their plant and replace their existing meters, and one PTFM 6.1 for completing spot checks throughout the plant.