Swedish Innovations for Sediment Research

Miami, FL, 2009-02-02 - After 40 years of service the Nilsson depth-integrating water sampler is now marketed commercially for the first time, along with its filtration device. At the same time a 30 years old specialized rectangular sediment corer is rolled out in the online shop of Lindorm, Inc., where they join the SediMeter™ instrument. What they all have in common is that they are developed in Sweden for environmental research.

These devices join a rank of other Swedish sediment research devices that have gone international, such as the Ekman box corer and the Kullenberg corer (also known as piston corer). In fact, even the paper filter that is used to filter the water from the Nilsson sampler is a Swedish innovation.

The Nilsson sampler is used to study the transport of suspended sediment in a river. It fills with water at a rate that is proportional to the water velocity. The user gradually lowers it from the river surface to the bottom, and raises it again at the same constant rate. The result is a sample that is representative of the transport of sediment in that vertical. That is, the sample represents the integral of the flux (concentration times velocity), and not simply the average concentration.

The sampler was developed by Dr. Bengt Nilsson in 1969 for use in the International Hydrological Decade (IHD, a UN initiative) and it became the de facto standard in Scandinavia. It has also been used in other countries, where sediment transport and reservoir siltation is often a bigger problem.

The rectangular sediment corer was developed in the late 70’s by a colleague of Dr. Nilsson, the late Dr. Valter Axelsson. Its unusual cross-section was selected for a reason. Dr. Axelsson developed a method to measure the density of the deposited sediments with a very high resolution, using X-rays. The parallel sides were necessary to minimize measurement errors. Axelsson used the method in a wide range of environments in different countries, gave courses at universities and institutions on several continents, and introduced the method to the Swedish Geologic Survey (SGU).

These devices complement well the core product of Lindorm, the SediMeter™. In fact, all of these were developed at the same university department, whose research paradigm since WWII has been called the Uppsala school of Physical Geography for its focus on quantifying geomorphologic processes by measurements of erosion, transport, and accumulation of sediment.

About Lindorm, Inc. - Lindorm, Inc. is a private company based in Miami, Florida It manufactures the SediMeter, offers custom electronic measurement solutions, and related products and services.

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