As part of the "Priority 2030" program, a team of scientists from Altai State University developed a technology for measuring liquid flow rate. Their know-how, "An electromagnetic submersible flowmeter for measuring flow rate and water consumption in large-diameter pipes," has been registered.
The client for this project was Technoservice (Magnitogorsk), a company specializing in technical support for agricultural production, particularly in hydraulic equipment and industrial shutoff valves (taps, valves) used in irrigation systems.
To assemble irrigation systems, experts must calculate the flow of water and added reagents, which requires reliable meters. The company leverages large-diameter pipelines — up to 2 meters. Consequently, the flow of liquid passing through them is also large, reaching speeds of up to 20 m/s. How can such a volume be calculated? In everyday life, we utilize meters with impellers (a rotating part consisting of a disc with blades) that rotates in the water flow, and the device counts the impeller's revolutions. However, tap water is clean and free of impurities, while water used for land reclamation is not always properly purified, which can damage the device.
"We started looking for solutions to the problem, and we discovered the answer back in the last century. Water always contains some salts. Salts, as we know from school chemistry, dissociate into ions. Therefore, a water flow is essentially a flow of ions, or charged particles. Generally, water is electrically neutral overall, but if a flow of charged particles passes through a magnetic field, a potential difference arises. This can be measured by placing the ends of two electrodes across the flow," explained Vsevolod Shcherbinin, Associate Professor of the Department of Radiophysics and Theoretical Physics and Candidate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences.
Electromagnetic flowmeters operate based on this principle. They come in two types: flow-through and submersible. The former is not suitable for large-diameter pipes, but the latter type fits our needs perfectly.
"A submersible electromagnetic flowmeter consists of a probe containing a solenoid (a cylindrical coil wrapped around a stationary ferromagnetic core) and two electrodes positioned on either side. This device is inserted into the pipe through a hole, which is sealed. When current flows through the coil, it generated a magnetic field. The voltage can be measured across the electrodes, which are located in the water flow under the magnetic field," explains the physicist.
A major advantage of this development is the creation of an entirely original electronic circuit that ensures higher-quality signal readings from the electrodes. This is especially crucial given the unavailability of previously used Italian and Japanese equivalents. A prototype device has already been developed, and production is underway in collaboration with our industrial partner, AROSSA (Adler).
"While studying the theory of electromagnetic flowmeters, we discovered original solutions for emerging challenges of processing highly noisy signals. This enabled us to develop and manufacture a prototype of an improved device. We also assembled a team of staff and students for the laboratory, which effectively addresses instrumentation challenges in the agricultural sector. We aim to further develop this area, for example, a miniature flow-through electromagnetic flowmeter for thin pipelines that could be used in crop spraying systems," adds Yuri Baranchugov, Project Manager at the Altai State University Project Management Office.