Design and Simulation of a residual chlorine concentration monitoring system for a piped water distribution network :

Abstract

Water quality. Monitoring is an important responsibility of all water supply agencies which-ensures the. water received by their customers is of required quality and is fee of all disease causing organisms. Disinfectant residual is normally used as the major water quality indicator and in NWS chlorine is used as the disinfectant. The recommended chlorine concentrations as per WHO are between, O.2mgiL and O.5P1g/L, the existing water quality monitoring techniques are. manual, laborious and-less effective in maintaining the residual chlorine concentrations within the recommended ranges, at the end of the water distribution network. This project analyses and reviews the water distribution network, the, existing water quality monitoring, techniques, and the like causes of chlorine decay in the distribution system for example leakages/contaminant pathways, too old pipes initial quality of the Water distributed. The research data collection methods included literature study, consultations, and field visits and observations. The information obtained helped Come up with the relevant requirements for the design and simulation of an appropriate residual chlorine concentration monitoring system. The sampling points, where the systems are to be installed were established not randomly bur based on a certain criterion. This was followed by the design of the system components 'like the sensor, microcontroller, GSM LCD. that are compatible with the existing water distribution network and networking to the phone. The monitoring system was simulated in proteus, simulating environment with a code written in Mikro C programming environment. And gave the required results, the water quality personnel is notified via phone by the system in case of low concentrations «O.2~g/L) and high chlorine concentrations (> 0.51ngi.'L). From the previous field. tests on residual chlorine in NWSC -T distribution network, it showed 7%, 21%.and 72% occurrences of high, low and normal chlorine concentrations respectively. This means water quality deteriorations remain serious problem with the many risks involved with consumption or contaminated .and highly chlorinated water thus the urgent need or implementation 0.1 this automatic residual chlorine concentration monitoring system.