Measuring Water Volume Based on Transmitting an electrical Current through it

Thread Starter

Gene Goldman

Joined Jun 28, 2017
1
Hello,

I'm interested in knowing if anyone has any experience in determining the volume of a fixed container by filling it with water and sending an electrical current through it and detecting the current on the other side. The delta between both the transmission and receiver will denote the total resistance which can then be calculated to determine the total amount of ionized water.

Has anyone done this? Does it work?

Thanks
 

Alec_t

Joined Sep 17, 2013
14,280
Welcome to AAC!
You are confusing voltage with current. The current will be the same at the 'transmitter' as at the 'receiver'.
Water conductivity varies wildly with purity, so this would not be a reliable method of assessing volume.
 

BR-549

Joined Sep 22, 2013
4,928
No........because water is like a million resistors in parallel. If you want to measure the amount of water with current, measure the change in temp........but this is very inefficient and takes time.

Normally we measure the volume occupied by the water. You can also weigh it.
 

Kermit2

Joined Feb 5, 2010
4,162
Mass measurement with a correction factor (k) based on temperature will deliver a very accurate volume determination. For small volumes, humidity levels becomes very important due to evaporation.
 

wayneh

Joined Sep 9, 2010
17,496
I don't think there's a reliable way to get from current (through a solution with known conductivity) to volume. Conduction will depend on the electrodes and the geometry of the paths available for current flow. You could probably calibrate the electrodes but I don't see any way around the geometry issue unless it's a known shape and you can calibrate against know volumes in nearly-identical shapes.

Why not use a scale, or measure the volume of water that you add to the empty vessel? Both would be very precise and accurate. If you can't use a scale, you might be able to estimate the volume by how the resonant frequency changes as you add know volumes. Or maybe you could measure the air that comes out.
 
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