SBIR-STTR Award

D&A Instrument company proposes to develop innovative instruments for measuring suspended loads to within 10 mm of a sediment bed which incorporate solid-state lasers, micro lenses and components, and fiber-optic techniques. The proposed research responds to Topic 8.4, Air, Water and Soils. Subtopic B .3: Development of improved methodologies for conserving water resources, restoring water quality, and determining proper irrigation usage to meet current and future agricultural and forestry needs. The proposed instrument will advance the understanding of the physics of sand and mud transport near boundaries where sediment concentrations and gradients of concentration are large. By providing better data on sediment transport, and reducing the cost of data collection, the proposed technology will contribute to the development of more effective sediment transport models. Specific areas that can be expected to benefit from the development of instruments that provide more accurate information on sediment transport and the resulting improvements in the predictive capabilities of sediment models include efforts to reduce soil loss from croplands and commercial forests, sustain production of fish and shellfish in streams and estuaries, maintain forest roads, control adverse effects of construction projects, maintain navigation channels, and reduce danger of hazardous materials stored in sediments.

Anticipated Results/Potential Commercial Applications of Research:
The proposed research will create new measurement tools to improve the quality of sediment transport data essential to improve fluvial erosion and sediment transport models. These tools will allow measurements very close to the bed, development of more accurate links between theoretical and actual sediment behavior and reduce the cost of multi-channel instrumentation needed to develop concentration profiles. Phase I will attempt to prove that the detection principle works. The Company has demonstrated feasibility with the development of the Model OBS-5 optical backscatter probe. Phase I will implement the OBS-5 optics in a new fiberoptic configuration to achieve miniaturization.

Gravel streambeds and beaches provide spawning habitat for salmon and form barriers to coastal erosion. Understanding how gravel is transported through measurements is essential for monitoring the ecological and physical processes of gravel-bed systems and for calibrating sediment transport models. We propose Phase II research to develop: 1) impact-recording sensors that can be deployed by wading operators or from bridges (designated Type 1 devices)and autonomous, internally recording systems that can be deployed in streams, on beaches, or on talus slopes for weeks to months to capture continuous records of bedload transport (designated Type 2 devices), 2) a method to estimate mass and volume transport rates in gravel bedload from the particle momentum data recorded by acoustic instruments and water depth logged by an auxiliary pressure sensor, and 3) an embedded controller to compute and record momentum, mass and volume-fluxes and pressure in real-time. Successful completion of the project will result in two new field-tested and flume-calibrated instruments that are safer to operate, more efficient in terms of data recovered per operator-hour and sampling intensity, and are functional over a wider range of transport and flow conditions than can be sampled with existing methods.

Anticipated Results/Potential Commercial Applications of Research:
The proposed research will create a new gravel transport measurement tools for accurate measurements during extreme flow conditions. The systems will be competitively priced, easy to operate and maintain, and will reduce labor costs. Several federal agencies (the USFS, USGS, and USACOE) have expressed interest in the technology for research and monitoring. The private sector will ultimately benefit from more accurate, less expensive, and rapid methods for obtaining environmental data for permit applications and regulatory compliance. D & A Instrument Company intends to manufacture and sell the proposed systems. The market, price structure and demand constitute an economically viable enterprise.