Analysis of particle numbers, size and composition in drinking water transportation pipelines: results of online measurements

Abstract

The particulate water quality in a distribution network is not always constant but can deteriorate over time. Discolouration problems can occur, especially in distribution systems with a low flow rate. Until now, particulate water quality in the distribution network has been mainly monitored by measuring the turbidity. However, as turbidity is an indirect measurement method, it does not give quantitative and qualitative information about the water quality, and therefore a more advanced approach was used in this research. Several particle counters have been used simultaneously to measure the particulate water quality at different locations in a transportation system. It was found that larger particles were present further away from the treatment location, although these sized particles were not present directly after treatment. The particulate water quality in the transportation system was also assessed by filtering time integrated large volume water samples. Both organic and inorganic measurements were used to characterise the particle composition. The results of the analysis show that the particulate water quality changed in the transportation system.

Electrochemical analysis of water and suds by impedance spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry

“…Commercial online methods used for environmental investigation (Huang et al, 2005;Kräuter et al, 2006) and distribution systems (Verberk et al, 2006) focus on other water components and are too expensive for household lowcost applications. Voltammetric methods combined with ionselective electrodes are expensive (Cammann and Galster, 1996) and not suitable for detergent determination because of complex and different detergent composition (Wagner, 2010).…”

Data-Driven Study of Discolouration Material Mobilisation in Trunk Mains

“…Increases in the applied hydraulic force on the pipe walls have been shown to mobilise discolouration material in pipes [19,20], and it is now sufficiently well understood that the resulting turbidity response from the flushing can to various degrees be modelled and predicted [16,21,22].…”

Predictive water quality modelling and resilience flow conditioning to manage discolouration risk in operational trunk mains

“…First, material responsible for causing discolouration is particulate in nature, typically around 10 µm (Gauthier et al 2001;Seth et al 2004;Verberk et al 2006), so unless systems exhibit very low flows for prolonged periods, gravitational sedimentation is not a dominant factor describing material behaviour (Boxall et al 2001). Second, this particulate material is ubiquitously present at low background concentrations in treated water and as it passes through the network it accumulates as cohesive layers on all boundary surfaces (van Thienen et al 2011).…”