Abstract
Abstract. Submersible pressure transducers have been utilized for collecting water level data since the early 1960s. Together with a digital data logger, it is a convenient way to record water level fluctuations for long-term monitoring. Despite the wide use of pressure transducers for water level monitoring, little has been reported regarding their accuracy and performance under field conditions. The effects of temperature fluctuations on the output of vented pressure transducers were considered in this study. The pressure transducers were tested under both laboratory and field conditions. The results of this study indicate that temperature fluctuation has a strong effect on the transducer output. Rapid changes in temperature introduce noise and fluctuations in the water level readings under a constant hydraulic head while the absolute temperature is also related to sensor errors. The former is attributed to venting and the latter is attributed to temperature compensation effects in the strain gauges. Individual pressure transducers responded differently to the thermal fluctuations in the same testing environment. In the field of surface hydrology, especially when monitoring fine-scale water level fluctuations, ignoring or failing to compensate for the temperature effect can introduce considerable error into pressure transducer readings. It is recommended that a performance test for the pressure transducer is conducted before field deployment.
Highlights
Submersible gauge pressure transducers are used to monitor water level fluctuation in wells and flow in open channels
As the temperature increased at the beginning of the test, the transducer readings had more noise and when the temperature dropped during the nighttime, the transducer readings became smoother
Temperature fluctuation tends to shift the baseline in the transducer readings
Summary
Submersible gauge pressure transducers are used to monitor water level fluctuation in wells and flow in open channels. The first is vented to the atmosphere through an integral air tube which allows for automatic compensation of barometric pressure change. This type is often referred to as a gauge pressure transducer. The second type measures the combined atmospheric pressure and the pressure head exerted by the overlying water column. This type is known as an absolute pressure transducer. For this type, the barometric pressure needs to be recorded separately to calculate the water level (Post and von Asmuth, 2013)
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