ASL AQFlow Inc. products

The ASFM Advantage provides the hydroelectric industry with a reliable, accurate and cost-effective method of measuring discharge, especially at low-head hydro plants with short or irregular intakes, where accurate discharge measurement has traditionally been difficult. If intake slots are available and the ASFM Advantage can be mounted on frames, overall measurement costs are significantly lower than with competitive technologies using dedicated (built-in) instruments. This is particularly significant at plants with multiple units. The ASFM Advantage is used for acceptance testing, field performance testing and determination of optimum settings for maximizing operational efficiency of turbines.

Once it has been calibrated, the ASFM Monitor provides reliable, accurate and repeatable, long-term real-time monitoring of turbine discharge. It has been developed for use in low-head, short-intake plants, but can be used in higher head plants as well. It is installed on the walls of the intake, and thus can also be used for the detection of trashrack blockage and penstock rupture. If intake slots can be available long-term, frame-installed Monitors can be used for as long as needed, and then moved to another unit fully instrumented, thus reducing the monitoring costs significantly.

Acoustic scintillation drift is a technique for measuring flow in a turbulent medium by analyzing the variations in ultrasonic pulses that have been transmitted through the medium. The Acoustic Scintillation Flow Meter (ASFM) uses this technique to measure the velocity of the water flowing through a conduit (e.g. an intake to a hydroelectric turbine) by utilizing the turbulence in the flow (e.g. small-scale turbulence generated by the intake trash racks).