Monitoring of suspended sediments -

Modern Instruments and Techniques

At:
Civil Engineering Department, NITW
Dated: 29th June 2023

By
Dr. Anant Kumar Rai
Assistant Professor
Mechanical Engineering department
NIT Warangal
Contact: anant@nitw.ac.in
 Contents
• Introduction
• Suspended sediments –Impacts on
Hydropower Plants
• Challenges – Suspended sediment
measurement – Available methods
• Case study
– Methodology
– Results
• Conclusions
Introduction

Source: Kumar et al., 2011

 Introduction cont…
Pacific Europe Impact of high
islands 4%
suspended sediment –
14%
1. loss of storage
Australia capacity of reservoirs
1%
Asia due to settling and
South 59% 2. hydro-abrasive
America
8% North
erosion of turbine
America Africa parts and hydraulic
7% 7%
structures
Source: Dedkov and Gusarov, 2006
23% Indus
44% Ganga
Central Indian Rivers
14%
West-flowing Rivers
East-flowing Rivers
10% 6%
Brahmaputra
3%
Source: Shukla, 2015
 Hydro-abrasive erosion – causes
• Erosion of Hydro-turbines and
hydraulic components is a severe
problem in the Himalayan region
because
– Mountains are relatively fragile
– sediment contains mainly quartz (generally
65%-95%)
– High ppm (5000 to 20000) in monsoon.
• Parameters involved
– Sediment characteristics
(Concentration, Size, Hardness and
Shape)
– Flow characteristics (velocity and
Angle of impingement)
– Properties of surface materials (Hardness,
Surface morphology, Properties of the coating
etc.)
Source: DHRE, 2018
 Hydro-abrasive Erosion – Impacts in
Hydropower Plants
• High suspended sediment causes erosion of –
1. Civil Structures such as linings of power channel,
tunnels, desilting tank, forebay tank
2. Hydro mechanical works such as penstock and valves
gates
3. Hydro machinery parts of the hydro-turbine
exposed to water
• Adverse Effects due to Silt Erosion
– Excessive damage of turbine components
– Decrease in efficiency, which leads to loss of power generation
– Turbine and hydraulic components require more frequent maintenance
– High repair cost, spares cost and even higher cost of downtime
New and Eroded Runners

Source: DHRE, 2015

 Eroded cheek plate Nathpa Jhakri Eroded nozzle of Vishnu Prayag

Eroded runner inlet of Dehar Eroded Pelton wheel of Toss Source: Rai, 2017
Hydro-Abrasive Erosion
 Challenges
❖ Measurement of suspended sediment
properties
❑ High temporal and spatial variation
❑ Traditional methods expensive, labour
intensive, and sometimes hazardous due to
inaccessible site conditions
❑ In cohesive sediments, the flocculated
aggregates are very fragile and can be easily
broken down, during traditional sampling
process
❑ Traditional sediment monitoring stations
operated by the United States Geological
Survey (USGS) has reduced around 75% in
number from 1982 to 2008
 Continuous measurement of
suspended sediment
• Available technologies for continuous
measurements –
– Turbidity
– Acoustics
– Lased diffraction
• Technologies in research phase of development
– Densimetric method
– Coriolis flowmeter or vibrating tubes
– Spectral reflectance
Turbidity
Acoustic
Laser diffraction
Densimetric method
Vibrating tubes
Spectral reflectance
 Instruments for continuous sediment
measurement
Portable Online Turbidity and suspended
solids Sensor (Solitax) Make: Hach, USA
Measuring parameters: Turbidity and suspended
sediment concentration continuously
Specification: (0.001 to 4000) NTU, 0.001 mg/L to 50
g/L)

Online multi-frequency acoustic sensor

(AquaScat) Make: Aquatek, UK
Measuring parameters: Sediment size and
concentration continuously
Specification: PSD: 20 μm to 500 μm
SSC: 0.01 g/l to 20 g/l over 1 m
 Instruments for continuous sediment
measurement cont…
Online Laser Diffraction
Sediment Sensor (LISST-
Infinite) Make: Sequoia, USA
Measuring parameters: Sediment
size and concentration continuously
Specification: PSD: 32 log-spaced
size classes, 2.5 to 500 µm size
range, SSC: Up to 30,000 ppm (mg/l)
 Instruments for sediment measurement
from manual samples
Portable Laser Diffraction Sediment
Sensor (LISST-Portable) Make: Sequoia, USA
Measuring parameters: Sediment size and
concentration
Specification: PSD: 32 log-spaced size classes,
1.25 to 250 µm size range
SSC: Up to 5,000 ppm (mg/l)

Sediment Size and Shape Analyser

(Camsizer) Make: Retsch Technology GmbH, Germany
Measuring parameters: Sediment size and
shape distributions
Specification: PSD: 0 to 3000 μm
Shape: Aspect ratio, roundness etc.
 Instruments for sediment measurement
from manual samples cont…

Sieve Analyser (Analysette 3 Pro) Make:

Fritsch GmbH, Germany
Measuring parameters: Sediment size analysis
Specification: Both dry and wet sieving,
Precision sieves: 20 μm to 1 mm
 Case Study
Field investigations
• Toss HPP (2X5 MW)
– Two vertical axis 4-jet Pelton turbine units
– Design head: 174 m
– Design unit discharge: 3.5 m3/s
– Pitch Circle Diameter: 1089 mm
• Suspended sediment measurement
– A multi-frequency acoustic instrument was
installed in desilting cum forebay tank for
continuous monitoring of SSC and PSD
– Twice daily manual sample collection for SSC, PSD,
shape and mineral composition
Suspended sediment measurement

Manual sampler used

before pump sampler

Sensors operating at 0.5,

1.0., 2.0 and 4 MHz
 Suspended sediment parameters from Toss HPP

2.0 1.0
Scaled d50 and shape (Roundness and b/l)

Scaled SSC and SSL

1.5 0.5

1.0 0.0

0.5 -0.5

0.0 -1.0
04-05-15

19-05-15

03-06-15

18-06-15

03-07-15

18-07-15

02-08-15

17-08-15

01-09-15

16-09-15

01-10-15

16-10-15
Time (days)

Scaled d₅₀ Scaled Sphericity Scaled b/l Scaled SSC Scaled cumulative load
 Suspended sediment shape

250 µm to 355 µm 180 µm to 250 µm

90 µm to 180 µm 0 µm to 90 µm
 Conclusions
• Sustainable development of hydropower
plants requires effective measures at the
planning, design, execution and operation
stages to keep erosion within manageable
limits.
• Measurement of suspended sediment
parameters is possible using modern
instruments and techniques to obtain higher
resolution of measured data.