engineer tools?

[twoseamfastball]

Location: USA

Comments

[inamac]

Try searching for 'water testing', or 'water purity testing' - a quick search brings up things like Colorimeters to test pH, chlorine dioxide, bromine, ozone, chromine, flouride and phosphate in a water sample, turbidity meters to check for suspended and colloidal matter such as clay, silt, microscopic organisms, and the usual dipsticks and surveying instruments.

[twoseamfastball]

Thank you! This is exactly what I needed!

[ffutures]

Almost certainly a flow meter with a propeller on a pole, measures the speed of the water at different depths. Sampling tubes and a pole to push them down to the correct depth. Thermometers. All the stuff inamac mentioned.

Assume more complicated stuff for deep water or oceans.

[twoseamfastball]

Thanks! And thank goodness this isn't dealing with oceans.

[gjules]

Even within "related to water" it's a wide field -- is this groundwater, surface water, oceanography? Sample jars and coolers are the only thing I can think of that might be used in all three areas. And maps. And a GPS if they're going in the field (and yes, both maps and GPS -- the GPS complements rather than replacing).

[twoseamfastball]

Mostly groundwater and maybe some mostly-land-locked surface water? The kind of testing involved here would be on industrial sites for the most part; the engineer in question works in environmental regulation compliance (or something like that, I dunno the exact job description).

[gjules]

Ah, OK. That's related to what I do, actually. What you're looking for is groundwater assessment. If they're drilling new wells, they'll probably be using a hollow-stem augur (HSA) or Geoprobe /direct push drilling rig to install the wells

[szaleniec1000]

Depending how well-equipped their organisation is, various spectroscopic instruments to analyse what's in the water. inamac touched on this. They're not field tools: they'll be back in the lab at headquarters. There's colorimetry, where you add a chemical to the water that reacts with impurities to make a coloured product which you can pick up with a colorimeter or a spectrophotometer. Then there's more advanced techniques like gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) used to find organic contaminants and atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) used to find metals.

All this said, a lot of organisations will hire contractors or enlist the help of the local university rather than do the spectroscopy for themselves, because these machines aren't as expensive as they used to be but still cost a fair bit. Whether it's more cost-effective depends entirely on how much water analysis they need to do.

[twoseamfastball]

I think they probably would have sent samples and whatnot out to a lab for testing-- the engineer in question works for a small company and I doubt they have that kind of equipment themselves. But is it the kind of thing someone studying this type of engineering would learn to use in grad school, do you think?

[szaleniec1000]

It's more likely to be an optional module than part of the core curriculum. I don't recall the environmental science students when I was at uni doing much spectroscopy beyond the very basics - if they had, they'd probably have used the machines in the chemistry department where I studied.

[justhuman]

Everything the others have said. Definitely a portable pH meter. Because this is someone that works outdoors, their equipment is either a bit more rugged or it's still fragile and comes in a case.

Other than the few tests that can give rough readings, most of the samples taken would be sent out to an water testing laboratory. Some samples will have to be refrigerated or put in coolers with ice packs.

[twoseamfastball]

Thank you. This is all great information. Love this comm!