Laboratory Study on the Relationships Between Suspended Sediment Concentration and Electrical Conductivity

In order to find a simple, continuous method to determine the suspended sediment concentration in a high turbidity region, experiments were conducted to look for relationships between suspended sediment concentration and electrical conductivity. Sediments were sampled from the Yellow River Delta and a conductivity sensor was used to measure the electrical conductivity of different sediment content seawater. The influencing factors such as temperature and salinity are also investigated. The results show that good linear relationships exist between suspended sediment concentration and electrical conductivity; salinity and temperature have some influence on electrical conductivity, and salinity is the most important influencing factor and temperature takes the second place. Basically, the general linear regression formulas between suspended sediment concentration and electrical conductivity can be drawn with variable salinity and temperature. The relationships suggest that it is feasible to measure suspended sediment concentration in situ using electrical conductivity sensors.