On the use of a radioactive‐tracer method in measurements of water

Abstract

In spite of the great variety of known methods for measuring the flow of water, there are situations in which for one reason or another all of them fail to offer the hydraulic engineer, or the hydrologist, a satisfactory solution. Specifically, there are limitations as to the amounts of water that can be diverted for direct measurement either by volume or by weight; space and the necessary head may not permit the use of a weir; shortness of the water‐passage and lack of sufficiently simple geometric form may preclude measurement by water‐hammer (Gibson method) or by salt velocity (Allen method); while turbulence may make measurements by current‐meter or by pitot‐tube entirely unreliable. In some cases even a measuring section of readily determinable area cannot be found, as for example in underground channels. Consequently, for many years the measurement of large volumes of water used by low‐head hydroelectric plants has been a difficult but most important problem.