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Comparison of scales for faecal sludge gravimetric characterization in low-resource settings
conference contribution
posted on 2018-02-12, 15:11 authored by Jean-David Therrien, Caetano C. DoreaPhysical and chemical properties of faecal sludge (FS) samples must be routinely measured for FS characterization as well as for design treatment and monitoring purposes. Many of the parameters of interest for FS rely on gravimetric methods of measurement (e.g. total solids, total volatile solids, etc.). As such, they require the use of weighing scales of sufficient reliability, accuracy and precision. Laboratory-grade analytical scales can be difficult to use in remote areas because of their bulk and price point. This study aims to compare two relatively low-cost, off-the-shelf electronic scales to a laboratory-grade analytical (reference) scale. Three scales were compared using their bias, load eccentricity errors and sensitivity errors. The comparison showed that the low-cost scales exhibit a positive bias and are more prone to eccentricity errors than the reference scale. However, they perform well enough to warrant further investigation into whether they can be an acceptable alternative to laboratory scales in field or low-resource settings for faecal sludge characterization.
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School
- Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering
Research Unit
- Water, Engineering and Development Centre (WEDC)
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WEDC ConferenceCitation
THERRIEN, J-D. and DOREA, C.C., 2016. Comparison of scales for faecal sludge gravimetric characterization in low-resource settings. IN: Shaw, R.J. (ed). Ensuring availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all: Proceedings of the 39th WEDC International Conference, Kumasi, Ghana, 11-15 July 2016, Briefing paper 2391, 5pp.Publisher
© WEDC, Loughborough UniversityVersion
- VoR (Version of Record)
Publisher statement
This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/Publication date
2016Notes
This is a conference paper.Other identifier
WEDC_ID:22516Language
- en
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