Stream Flow Measurement by an Inert Tracer Pulse Technique

A technique is described and demonstrated for the determination of volumetric flow rates in open streams which consists of introducing an inert tracer concentration as an undefined pulse, sampling the concentration at a point downstream, and analyzing the samples by activation analysis. This method does not involve the introduction of any radioactive material into the stream and yet still retains most of the high sensitivity and selectivity of radiotracer techniques.