Enhanced NTU by Modified Turbidity Sensor

Turbidity of water is the measure of relative clarity of water. It is the cloudiness of water due to the presence of large number of suspended particles in water. To measure the turbidity of water in home appliances like dish washer and washing machine the standard available electronic turbidity sensor installed inside takes into account the light received by the phototransistor receiver from the light emitting diode in it. More the water turbid, more is the light scattered and lesser is the amount of light received by the receiver. The light gets scattered to all directions due to the suspended particles’ obstruction. The standard turbidity sensor used in such appliances use only the single phototransistor receiver to pick-up the un-scattered light. If we could measure the amount of the scattered light as well then we could get the enhanced realistic turbidity measurement of water. This paper proposes the simple, cost-effective modification in the existing available standard turbidity sensor to pick-up the light that is scattered due to the particles present in water with the help of additional receiver. This has proven to give the enhanced, realistic and better turbidity reading of turbid water. This modified turbidity sensor enables to account for the light scattered by the suspended particles in turbid water. The NTU (Nephelometric turbidity unit) turbidity sensors used commercially for real time water turbidity monitoring in lakes and rivers usually take into account the scattered light pick-up but are costly. This paper gives the cost-effective solution for the measurement of realistic turbidity of water in the form of simple modified turbidity sensor.