Abstract
Control of water resources is becoming an important strategic issue. That is why authorities set the goal for wa-ter agencies to manage the availability of water and create regulations to its rational use. The main point in water control is measurement. There are three important aspects of measurements of water resources: at water extraction from nature, at the consumption and at custody transfer. Control of water consumption sometimes is based not on measurements, but on preliminary estimation, for example, by pumping.
 Ultrasonic measurement technology as a key feature of automated control of resources has a potential role in this market. In contrast to mechanical (turbine) meters, ultrasonic meters have a priority because they also give a possibility to realize smart metering. In contrast to electromagnetic meters, which also measure with high accuracy and realize smart functions, ultrasonic meters much more suitable for rough water, wastewater and sewage. Such water resources are usually poorly controlled, which means that no one knows their exact cost.
 Measurement is mandatory to control cost and for billing. Accuracy is important issue, especially when we say about measurements in large pipe diameters. There is practically no alternative to ultrasonic flow meters. Market of diverse meters concentrated on diameters under 400 mm. For larger diameters, only ultrasonic meters are in use. They have many chords, difficult algorithms for data processing. Thus, they are applicable over a very wide flow range.
 In this paper, we discover transit-time ultrasonic flow meters to understand features of their measurement theory taking into account all factors affecting their work. This article describes errors inherent in these flowmeters during measurements.
 As far as accuracy is significantly important in billing, the cost of 1% measurement error in consumption of water resources for small (DN50÷DN150 mm) and large (DN200÷DN1200 mm) pipe diameters has been evaluated and analyzed. The losses from the installation of low-quality metering devices are demonstrated and discussed.
Highlights
Formulation of the problem The United Nations estimates that at least 780 million people in the World do not have access to clean drinking water; some 2.5 billion people lack access to safe sanitation systems [1]
We discover transit-time ultrasonic flow meters to understand features of their measurement theory taking into account all factors affecting their work
That is why authorities set the goal for water agencies to manage the availability of water resources and create regulations to its rational use
Summary
Formulation of the problem The United Nations estimates that at least 780 million people in the World do not have access to clean drinking water; some 2.5 billion people lack access to safe sanitation systems [1]. That is why authorities set the goal for water agencies to manage the availability of water resources and create regulations to its rational use. Providing an adequate water supply is a major challenge facing many public water utilities, especially in developing countries. A significant part of this challenge is non-revenue water, which is the difference between the volume of water put into a water distribution system and the volume that is billed to customers. It is estimated that water utilities in developing countries can lose 40-50% of the water they put Вісник КПІ.
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