Damen Launches New CombiMeter With Non-Radioactive Density Meters

Damen Launches New CombiMeter With Non-Radioactive Density Meters 1

It is very important to keep a continuous control on the dredging efficiency, on board dredgers. This is done by density measurement. That means, continuously checking the throughput in the dredge pipe. For several decades this measurement was done using a nuclear density meter. Now Damen has put forward a new technique to the test on an aggregate dredger. This technique passed through many tests and achieved its overwhelming victory. As a result, the new CombiMeter is available for all new dredgers and retrofits.

The CombiMeter consists of a flow meter and a density meter. An electromagnetic flow meter by Krohne Altometer is used for the flow meter. This is a proven concept in the dredging industry. Added to this is a density meter based on electrical resistance tomography, as developed by ITS (Industrial Tomography Systems). Both are combined in an integrated production meter; the CombiMeter. The CombiMeter has undergone a series of extensive field tests in the Damen Dredging test loop, in the ¡VAMOS! mining project and lastly as a full-scale test on the CEMEX aggregate dredger Sand Falcon in a Ø700 mm pipeline.

What is Dredging?

During the tests, the Sand Falcon dredged a range of materials including fine sand, coarse sand and gravel. All the tests were carried out at sea, comparing data from the new CombiMeter with that from an existing radioactive model. All data from the CombiMeter were within a 1-3% accuracy range and showed a 0.95 correlation factor with the radioactive type. All the evidence from all the tests has led to the conclusion that the CombiMeter performs excellently in this saltwater environment, in both horizontal as well as vertical pipelines, covering a wide array of soils including silt, sand and gravel.

The CombiMeter will be installed on the marine aggregate dredger CEMEX Go Innovation, currently under construction at Damen Shipyards Galati. CEMEX project manager Mr Mark Williams says; “In keeping with the design objective of CEMEX UK Marine Ltd to build a state of the art, future-proof, aggregate dredger and to ensure the vessel’s environmental credentials, a key consideration was the elimination of potentially harmful substances. These range from toxic coatings to the radioactive source found in a conventional nuclear density meter that would prevent the new build vessel achieving an ECO notation from Lloyds Register, this being a first in the UK marine aggregate industry.

“We were therefore a willing partner in developing non-nuclear density measurement technology. From the trials undertaken on the Sand Falcon, we were very happy with the results, which compare favourably with traditional radioactive density meters.” The vessel’s crew praised the quick response times of the new system and agreed that visualisation of the density profile as a tomographic image of the dredge pipe helped them to increase the overall efficiency during a dredging cycle.”

The new CombiMeter technology is more advantageous than the nuclear density meter. It is a purely environmental friwndly green Solution that does not rise any safety issues. Also the operational cost of the new system is substantially lower as it does not require special permits and licences for transport, storage or use. Moreover, there is no need of specialized team for servicing the nuclear meter.

The CombiMeter has undergone a number of tests. The full results of all these tests will be presented at the WEDA Dredging Summit and Expo in Chicago, on the 7 June 2019. Damen. ITS and Krohne will be present for launching the CombiMeter to the dredging industry.

Reference: damen.com

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