Monitoring Thermal Dispersion of Buried Cables
Universal 8-Channel Datalogger Logs Several Values
CHESTERLAND, OH —
Recently CAS DataLoggers configured a continual monitoring system to record thermal dispersion of medium-voltage buried cables using an OMNIAlog data logger from Next Industries. This system has been configured to log temperatures, soil moisture, and current at a 5- foot depth.
Multi-Value Monitoring:
The customer needed to measure multiple values including:
Temperature at 4 points, from -10°C to +100°C (14°F to 212°F)
Soil moisture at 1 point
Current of the buried, medium- voltage, unsectioned cable (0 to 500A)
Standalone Datalogger:
CAS DataLoggers provided the customer with an NI-480 OmniaLog 8-Channel Datalogger from Next Industries. This datalogger allows connecting with up to 8 sensors of any type with an analog output (voltage or current), Thermistors, RTDs, Thermocouples, and RS485 signals.
No separate software is needed since the datalogger is supplied with an internal webserver. The OmniaLog is fully-configurable by simply connecting a PC via Ethernet cable and using a browser. The OmniaLog is a high-accuracy datalogger which can log for months in standalone mode (unattented), powered from lead batteries. In fact, its sensors are activated and powered only for the minimal time it takes to perform measurements. Alternately, the sensors can be preloaded with a 'warm up' option from the logger's interface.
Temperature sensor:
A Type-T thermocouple (Constantan copper, slightly more accurate than Type K ones) was designed just for this application. This sensor is mineral-insulated and metal-jacketed, being highly resistant to earth corrosion. It is supplied with a 10-foot cable junction. This sensor is read without any special configuration by the OMNIAlog. The wiring scheme to the logger's terminals is directly supplied from the GUI (Graphical Interface).
Current sensor:
The maximum cross-section of the cable's conductors is 240mm2. The customer specified that the cables are medium voltage and that a single-phase reading is enough for their purposes. For this purpose, it was necessary to install a toroidal openable TA with a 10cm diameter. The chosen TA is made by IME and is combined with a self-powered transmitter with a 4-20 mA output.
The user simply configured the sensor type as 4-20 mA Signal on the OMNIAlog datalogger, providing the conversion constant between the signal and the engineering unit, which is Ampere in this case. In this way, the 4mA received by the transducer are equivalent to 0A current passing through the cable, and the 20mA received by the transducer are equivalent to 500A current passing through the cable, if the conversion is considered linear. Non-linear transformation curves can also be set up on the OMNIAlog. Then the user sets the engineering unit as Ampere. The wiring scheme to the OMNIAlog terminals is directly supplied from the GUI (Graphical Interface).
Humidity sensor:
For humidity measurements, the customer only needs a guideline, not a very accurate measurement: in other words, users want to make a rough comparison such as "Today the soil is more humid than yesterday," or to identify a rainy day.
In order to do so, users could simply use a sensor with 2 electrodes spaced at a fixed distance, measuring the change of resistance between them in different soil conditions. However, users are instead employing a sensor widely used in agriculture, available at a low cost, which uses the principle of electrical resistance. In this case the output signal is a voltage (0V for very wet to 2.4V for dry). Since the transformation curve is not linear, another device is needed to 'straighten' the signal - making it linear from 0 to 2.8V.
V signal (voltage) is set as the sensor type on the OMNIAlog and the sensor has to be powered at 5V. Centibar (or kPa) is set as the engineering unit, which is used in this field to understand thesoil moisture degree. 0V is equivalent to 0 centibar, and 2.8V are equivalent to 240 centibar. The wiring scheme to the OMNIAlog terminals - including the sensor power supply - is directly supplied from the GUI (Graphical Interface). In this case it is best to set up a time to warm up (preheat the sensor) of at least 1 minute before data acquisition begins.
Details:
Recording time: 6 months
Sampling time: 1 reading collected every 15 minutes
Detection depth: 1.5 meters (nearly 5 feet)
Possibility to power the data logger: No
Data transmission: Internal memory or GSM network
Summary:
With a single datalogger it is possible to collect:
4 temperature measurements
1 current measurement on a medium voltage cable
1 soil moisture measurement
The OMNIAlog collects data every 15 minutes for the entire 180 day period. Data is downloaded by simply connecting a laptop PC via Ethernet cable and querying the datalogger. In the future, the datalogger will be configured to send data to an online server, where it is remotely accessible via a GSM secure data transmission module. For more info on the Next Industries NI-480 OmniaLog 8-Channel Logger, or to find the ideal solution for your application-specific needs, contact a CAS Data Logger Applications Specialist at 800-956-4437 or visit our website at www.DataLoggerInc.com.
Contact Information:
CAS DataLoggers, Inc.
8437 Mayfield Rd.
Chesterland, Ohio 44026
440-729-2570
800-956-4437
sales@dataloggerinc.com
www.dataloggerinc.comÂ