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Does temperature affect the accuracy of vented pressure transducer in fine-scale water level measurement?

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https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/articles/nv9357133

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  • Submersible pressure transducers have been utilized for collecting water level data since early 1960s. Together with a digital datalogger, it is a convenient way to record water level fluctuations for long-term monitoring. Despite the widely use of pressure transducers for water level monitoring, little has been reported for their accuracy and performance under field conditions. The effect of temperature fluctuations on the output of vented pressure transducers were discussed in this study. The pressure transducer was tested under both laboratory and field conditions. The results of this study indicate that temperature fluctuation has a strong effect on the transducer output. Rapid changes in temperature introduce noise and fluctuations in the water level readings under a constant hydraulic head while the absolute temperature is also related to sensor errors. The former is attributed to venting and the latter is attributed to temperature compensation effect in the strain gauges. Individual pressure transducers responded differently to the thermal fluctuations in the same testing environment. In the field of surface hydrology, especially when monitoring fine-scale water level fluctuations, ignoring or failing to compensate for the temperature effect can introduce considerable error into pressure transducer readings. It is recommended that a performance test for the pressure transducer is conducted before field deployment.
  • This discussion paper has been under review for the journal Geoscientific Instrumentation, Methods and Data Systems (GI). Please refer to the corresponding final paper in GI. The published article is copyrighted by the author(s) and published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union. The published article can be found at: http://www.geoscientific-instrumentation-methods-and-data-systems.net/ The final revised paper is available at: http://hdl.handle.net/1957/56519
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  • Liu, Z., & Higgins, C. W. (2014). Does temperature affect the accuracy of vented pressure transducer in fine-scale water level measurement?. Geoscientific Instrumentation, Methods and Data Systems, 4, 533-561. doi:10.5194/gid-4-533-2014
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  • 4
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  • This research is supported by Oregon Department of Transportation.
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