Transducers can help measure reservoir levels

With the driest start to a year in Britain and much of Western Europe since 1929, monitoring falling reservoir levels assumes increased importance and can readily be accomplished using RDP transducers.

They offer two main approaches for monitoring water levels either using transducers fitted with floats, or alternatively by using pressure transducers. Floats attached to transducers have proved a popular solution and are used to measure the height of the float at the top of a reservoir. For large lakes even a change of 1mm represents a significant change in volume, so accuracy is essential. There are several installations of this type in mountainous areas of Italy.

The use of submersible transducers in conjunction with 4~20mA output amplifiers enables signals to be communicated from remote measuring locations to a control room. Pressure transducers can be deployed to measure the ‘head of water’ from which depth can be calculated as an alternative monitoring method. In both cases RDP transducers are designed for long life delivering accurate and reliable measurement despite immersion in water.