In this paper, artifi cial neural networks (ANNs) were used to assess the performance of fl ow meters used in industrial water supply. These fl ow meters are susceptible to drift, a condition causing them to give erroneous readings that are inconsistent with the actual fl ow. A simulation of industrial water fl ow to the industrial consumers was made. This simulation contained both healthy and drifting fl ow meter readings. ANN was built and trained on the simulated data. At the time of testing, the ANN developed was correct 89.52% of the time in determining the status of the fl ow recorded by a fl ow meter. Keywords: artifi cial neural network, fl ow meter drift, industrial water supply, statistical process control.
INTRODUCTIONThe importance of water cannot be overemphasized. Because of this, people realized the importance of controlling, organizing, and regulating its use. No sensible controlling, organizing, regulating, and planning can be done without accurate measurement. Hence, the abundance of fl ow meters in any water system. Accurate measurement arrangements are required for effectively managing water infrastructure regimes. Flow meters can be subject to specifi c failures such as erroneous readings and breakdown. Inaccurate measurements affect the controlling, organizing, and regulating processes of the water system and planning. Measures for avoiding and mitigating such fl ow meter problems include: calibration, repair, and replacement. Flow meter calibration generally involves checking against accurate standards to determine any appreciable deviations and correcting for errors. Yet, this calibration is not a one time transaction as it does not end the problem forever.Flow meter calibration is often neglected by the operation and maintenance staff of a water system. Drift is an error in measurement, which can increase with time. Ben Salamah et al.[1] outlined a statistical process control (SPC)-based fl ow meter drift detection method for the industrial water use regime. Realizing the usefulness of artifi cial neural network (ANN) modeling for forecasting and classifi cation objectives, an extension of this research considered specifi c applications of ANN modeling with improved SPC frameworks for fl ow meters. This paper presents some key fi ndings from the application of ANN models for detecting fl ow meter drifts.