TY - JOUR
T1 - Towards high resolution monitoring of water flow velocity using flat flexible thin mm-sized resistance-typed sensor film (MRSF)
AU - Xu, Zhiheng
AU - Fan, Yingzheng
AU - Wang, Tianbao
AU - Huang, Yuankai
AU - MahmoodPoor Dehkordy, Farzaneh
AU - Dai, Zheqin
AU - Xia, Lingling
AU - Dong, Qiuchen
AU - Bagtzoglou, Amvrossios
AU - McCutcheon, Jeffrey
AU - Lei, Yu
AU - Li, Baikun
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019
PY - 2019/8/1
Y1 - 2019/8/1
N2 - Novel flexible thin mm-sized resistance-typed sensor film (MRSF)fabricated using ink-jet printing technology (IPT)was developed in this study to monitor water flow rate in pipelines in real time in situ mode. The mechanism of MRSF is that the mm-sized interdigitated electrodes made by printing silver nanoparticles on an elastic polyimide film bend under different flow rates, leading to variation of the resistance of the sensor at different degrees of curvature. Continuous flow tests showed that MRSF possessed a high accuracy (0.2 m/s)and excellent sensitivity (0.1447/ms−1). A model of sensor resistance and flow velocity was established to unfold the correlation between the fundamentals of fluid mechanics and the mechanic flexibility of sensor materials. An analytical model yielded a high coefficient of determination (R2 > 0.93)for the relationship between the resistance increment of the MRSF and the square of the flow velocity at the velocity range of 0.25–2 m/s. Furthermore, a temperature-correction model was developed to quantify the effect of water temperature on the sensor resistance readings. MRSF exhibited a low temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR, 0.001)at the water temperature range of 20–60 °C. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD)simulations using the finite element method were conducted and confirmed both the underlying load assumptions and the deformation characteristics of the sensor film under various flow and material conditions. High-resolution monitoring of water flow rate using MRSF technology was expected to save at least 50% energy consumption for a given unit, especially under flow fluctuation. MRSF possesses a great potential to perform real-time in situ monitoring at high accuracy with ultralow cost, thus enabling the feedback control at high spatiotemporal resolution to reduce the overall energy consumption in water and wastewater systems.
AB - Novel flexible thin mm-sized resistance-typed sensor film (MRSF)fabricated using ink-jet printing technology (IPT)was developed in this study to monitor water flow rate in pipelines in real time in situ mode. The mechanism of MRSF is that the mm-sized interdigitated electrodes made by printing silver nanoparticles on an elastic polyimide film bend under different flow rates, leading to variation of the resistance of the sensor at different degrees of curvature. Continuous flow tests showed that MRSF possessed a high accuracy (0.2 m/s)and excellent sensitivity (0.1447/ms−1). A model of sensor resistance and flow velocity was established to unfold the correlation between the fundamentals of fluid mechanics and the mechanic flexibility of sensor materials. An analytical model yielded a high coefficient of determination (R2 > 0.93)for the relationship between the resistance increment of the MRSF and the square of the flow velocity at the velocity range of 0.25–2 m/s. Furthermore, a temperature-correction model was developed to quantify the effect of water temperature on the sensor resistance readings. MRSF exhibited a low temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR, 0.001)at the water temperature range of 20–60 °C. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD)simulations using the finite element method were conducted and confirmed both the underlying load assumptions and the deformation characteristics of the sensor film under various flow and material conditions. High-resolution monitoring of water flow rate using MRSF technology was expected to save at least 50% energy consumption for a given unit, especially under flow fluctuation. MRSF possesses a great potential to perform real-time in situ monitoring at high accuracy with ultralow cost, thus enabling the feedback control at high spatiotemporal resolution to reduce the overall energy consumption in water and wastewater systems.
KW - Computational fluid dynamics simulations
KW - Flow velocity
KW - Kapton film flexibility
KW - Mm-sized resistance type sensor film (MRSF)
KW - Real-time in situ monitoring
KW - Temperature correction
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85065451814&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.wroa.2019.100028
DO - 10.1016/j.wroa.2019.100028
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85065451814
SN - 2589-9147
VL - 4
JO - Water Research X
JF - Water Research X
M1 - 100028
ER -