Water Flow Sensor – Working & Its Applications

• Water plays an essential role, whether it be for drinking purposes for survival, or making, baking, cooking, or cleaning purposes, it is a universal solvent too. Thus water has many applications in households and Industries too.

• Effective water management involves supplying water according to the real requirement, and thus measuring water is a very essential step in water management systems. There are many water flow measurement techniques as well as different types of water flow meters used to measure the volume of water flow in pipelines but these all are too costly.

Construction & Working Principle of Water Flow Sensor

• The water flow sensor consists of a plastic valve from which water can pass. A water rotor along with a hall effect sensor is present the sense and measure the water flow.
• When water flows through the valve it rotates the rotor. By this, the change can be observed in the speed of the motor. This change is calculated as output as a pulse signal by the hall effect sensor. Thus, the rate of flow of water can be measured.

• The main working principle behind the working of this sensor is the Hall effect. According to this principle, in this sensor, a voltage difference is induced in the conductor due to the rotation of the rotor. This induced voltage difference is transverse to the electric current.
• When the moving fan is rotated due to the flow of water, it rotates the rotor which induces the voltage. This induced voltage is measured by the hall effect sensor and displayed on the LCD.

Applications of Water Flow Sensor

Flow sensors come in various types depending on the process, they will differ in diameter, method of measuring, and cost

• can measure the flow of fluids milk, petrol, diesel, and other industrial fluids.
• can be used for sewage water, slurries and other dirty liquids.
• also can be used for viscous liquids.
• YFS201 Hall effect sensor is an example of this sensor. These sensors also require a display to display the measurements. This sensor outputs 4-5 pulses for every liter of liquid flowing through it per minute. It has a working flow rate of 1-30liters per minute. Easy to use and cost-effectiveness are the important characteristics of this sensor.