Project

A proposed project on an arduino digital fuel level and leak sensor with GSM modem

Any help on how to go about it?

What kind of fuel, combustible such as petrol?

Happyengineer said:

Any help on how to go about it?

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First define the project.
Is this liquid fuel?
In a closed tank?
How are you measuring the fuel level?
How big a leak are you trying to detect?
What is leaking, the tank or the pipe feeding the fuel to somewhere else ??

JimB

We are building an arduino based digital fuel level and leak detector with GSM modem.
We are centering around plants and generators that make use of say diesel.
And since some plants and gen sets have their fuel tanks embedded, leaks might not be very conspicuous.
So we want to construct a system that would have a level sensor to display the level of fuel in the tank at any given time on an LCD shield, send an SMS to operators in cases of critically low fuel levels and when a fuel leakage is sensed,an SMS is also sent to the operator.

Is this a school/college project?

Yes ,my final year project in school

How will you separate fuel leakage from normal fuel use?

What sort of resolution on the level measurement will you need to detect meaningful amounts of leakage?

We saw a fuel and oil leak sensor that would do that job. It's a whole system on its own. We would just connect it to our system.
Per the usual load of the plant, the consumption rate of the fuel in the fuel tank can be partially assumed. So when the consumption rate is unusual, that's where the fuel leak system would come in.

I am telling you so much about myself and my project esp ,do you mind telling me who you are?

Happyengineer said:

I am telling you so much about myself and my project esp ,do you mind telling me who you are?

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He's just trying to get the necessary information about your project to help you. If you bring your car to a mechanic and all you say is "my car is doesn't work" they can't help you. Plus this is also a forum so it's like doing the same thing over the phone which makes it even more impossible. We are not mind readers.

Think about it this way: If you know everything about the project and don't know what to do, how can we help you if we know even less about the project?

For example, look at this guy's post:
https://www.electro-tech-online.com...-in-full-bridge-inverter.155439/#post-1338829

That guy is just asking how to solve a small, very specific in his circuit, but look at all the detail and information he provided. All of it was necessary for us to help him. You are asking for general help on how to build an entire project. You need to provide even more information than he does. If you don't know that information, then you will need to tell us everything you do know and we will ask you the right questions so you can find out what you need to know.

Happyengineer said:

I am telling you so much about myself and my project esp ,do you mind telling me who you are?

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Actually, you have said virtually nothing about your project. You've provided some very basic information about what you've been tasked to do, but nothing about your approach to fulfilling that task.

Many people here are more than willing to offer advice and help when you have specific questions but nobody will do your project for you.

The questions Jim and I asked are part of the thought process to designing a solution.

If this is a theoretical project fair enough.
However be aware that actual fuel tanks require special precautions to prevent ignition sources from any kind of electrical system.

I can share the following starting at the beginning. Detecting anything be it fuel level in a tank to a fuel leak starts with a sensor and the sensor will need to be designed for the medium you want to detect, such as fuel be it diesel fuel or as we call it in the US gasoline or any other fuel. Often the sensor output needs signal conditioning which is just a way of taking what you have and conditioning the signal to what you want. It all starts with the sensor which you choose since for example fuel in a tank can be measured as a level expressed in an engineering unit like of weight, height, pressure or other units. Depending on sensor output the signal gets conditioned and passed on to, in your case, a micro controller which will convert an analog signal to a digital signal you manipulate with your software. Then if you wish interface a GSM module to your micro processor and have it call home to send the data it collects.

All of this starts with a clean blank sheet of paper, a very sharp pencil and an eraser on the pencil. You draw out what you want to do and how you plan to go about it.

Happyengineer said:

I am telling you so much about myself and my project esp ,do you mind telling me who you are?

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Sure. My name is Ron and I live in Cleveland, Ohio USA. During May of 2013 I retired following over 40 years of working in the electrical engineering field. That put the kids through school and food on the table. I am enjoying my retirement from a career as you begin a career. The last 25 years of my career I worked with the US Navy Nuclear Propulsion Program. I was also New York City, USA born and raised if that helps.

So what's your plan in detail?

Ron

OK thanks, I guess I will have to go gather more info before about my baby(project).
I will get back to you as soon as I can. Am a Ghanaian and my name is Happy,thanks for your help

I've always wondered if resonant frequency could be used to measure fuel level. Anyone tried?

Mike.

How?

Pommie said:

I've always wondered if resonant frequency could be used to measure fuel level. Anyone tried?

Mike.

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Interesting idea, especially of a tank on a tower. The mass in the tank will change the natural frequency of the system. Probably going to be far from a linear relationship as there would be many factors involved.

If the tank was outdoors, the wind could excite the natural frequency or some kind of "thumper" could be used.

[Mandatory story] My group in a naval shipyard performed machinery condition / vibration analysis on rotating machinery (including some of that types of machines Ron was responsible for). When we had concerns about natural frequencies being close to a forcing frequency of a machine, we'd break out our 16 pound no-bounce (shot-filled) sledge hammer. A bump test on the machine will excite its natural frequencies. No lumberjack swings at the machine but just a gentle thud to make it vibrate.

One day the chief design engineer followed us out to a ship when we had to do a bump test. The machinist general foreman had called him, complaining we were beating on his machines with a sledge hammer, and he wanted to see for himself. We set up the tape recorder and accelerometers and hit the machine with out sledge hammer... with about a 4 inch swing. Thud.

"That's it? That's all you do?!?" the chief design engineer asked. Yep, not very exciting, is it?

JonSea said:

Interesting idea, especially of a tank on a tower. The mass in the tank will change the natural frequency of the system. Probably going to be far from a linear relationship as there would be many factors involved.

If the tank was outdoors, the wind could excite the natural frequency or some kind of "thumper" could be used.

[Mandatory story] My group in a naval shipyard performed machinery condition / vibration analysis on rotating machinery (including some of that types of machines Ron was responsible for). When we had concerns about natural frequencies being close to a forcing frequency of a machine, we'd break out our 16 pound no-bounce (shot-filled) sledge hammer. A bump test on the machine will excite its natural frequencies. No lumberjack swings at the machine but just a gentle thud to make it vibrate.

One day the chief design engineer followed us out to a ship when we had to do a bump test. The machinist general foreman had called him, complaining we were beating on his machines with a sledge hammer, and he wanted to see for himself. We set up the tape recorder and accelerometers and hit the machine with out sledge hammer... with about a 4 inch swing. Thud.

"That's it? That's all you do?!?" the chief design engineer asked. Yep, not very exciting, is it?

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Colleagues who help you solve problems using a hammer are the most valuable.

dknguyen said:

Colleagues who help you solve problems using a hammer are the most valuable.

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Especially a bright orange sledge hammer