A New Water Level Measurement Method Combining Infrared Sensors and Floats for Applications on Laboratory Scale Channel under Unsteady Flow Regime

In this paper, we studied water transport under an unsteady flow regime in an experimental channel (4 m in length; 3 cm in width). Our experiments implicated some measuring requirements, specifically, a water level (WL) detection technique that is able to measure WL in a range of 2 cm with a precision of 1 mm. The existing WL detection techniques could not meet our measurement requirements. Therefore, we propose a new measurement method that combines two approaches: An “old” water contact technique (float) with a “new” remote non-contact technique (infrared sensor). We used an extruded polystyrene (XPS Foam) that needed some adequate treatment before using it as float in experimental measurements. The combination of IR-sensors with treated float foam lead to a sensitive measurement method that is able to detect flat and sharp flow signals, as well as highly dynamic variations of water surface level. Based on the experimental measurements of WL and outflow at the channel output, we deduced a loop rating curve that is suitable with a power law adjustment. The new measurement method could be extended to larger scale applications like rivers and more complicated cross section geometry of irregular shape.