Time and frequency domain analysis and measurement results of varying acoustic signal to determine water pollutants in the Rio Grande river

Abstract

Water occupies three forth of earth's surface. Water is directly and indirectly polluted in many ways. Therefore, it is of vital importance to monitor water pollution levels effectively and regularly. It is a well known fact that changes in the water medium and its parameters directly affect the propagation of acoustic signal through it. As a result, time and frequency domain analysis of an acoustic signal propagating through water can be a valued indicator of water pollution. Preliminary investigative results to determine water contaminants using acoustic signal in an indoor laboratory tank environment was presented in [1]. This paper presents an extended abstract of the continuing research involving a time and frequency domain analysis of acoustic signal in the presence of three water pollutants, namely fertilizer, household detergent, and pesticide. A measurement will be conducted in the Rio Grande River, Espanola, NM, at three different locations by transmitting a single pulse through the water at different depths and distances. The same measurement will be conducted in a tank with clean water and in a tank with three pollutants added separately. The three sets of received signal from the three measurements will be compared to each other. The sets of received signal from the measurement results will be compared to the simulated result of the time and frequency domain response of the acoustic signal for validation. To the best knowledge of the author(s) utilizing acoustic signal and its properties to determine water pollutants using the proposed method is a new approach.