Dissolved Oxygen Sensors for Scour Monitoring

Scour, or the removal of supporting bed material by currents and waves, can jeopardize the stability of river and marine structures. A novel scour sensing scheme is proposed whereby an array of miniature dissolved oxygen (DO) probes detects scour depths. While buried, the probes detect minimal DO levels. Scour exposes the sensors to flowing water, causing a significant rise in the detected DO. The proposed sensing scheme was validated through small-scale experiments in a flume.