The IEEE Seventh Working Conference on Current Measurement Technology

Current and Wave Monitoring and Emerging Technologies

March 13-15 | Bahia Hotel | San Diego, CA, USA

  
     

A New Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler Instrument
for Horizontal Profile Measurements of Water Flow

Neil Trenaman and Randy Marsden

RD Instruments,
9855 Businesspark Av
San Diego, CA 92131
Ph: 858-693-1178
email: ntrenaman@rdinstruments.com

RD Instruments Inc, USA, (RDI) commercially developed the Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) in the early 1980s and has delivered more than 3500 instruments to over 50 countries, during the last 20 years. While vertical profiling from a fixed or moving platform is considered to be a standard application technique, horizontal profiling us-ing ADCPS is only now becoming recognized as viable approach for many applications. The H-ADCP instruments profile horizontally, and are capable of measuring the current field ranging from a few meters to 300 meters. Meas-urement of the horizontal current flow field has a variety of applications that include:

  • Measurement of discharge in rivers and channels.
  • In ports and harbors where a pier-mounted instrument monitors shipping channels to aid navigation and safety.
  • In estuaries for defining complex circulation patterns and lateral mixing;
  • Oil platforms and rigs, and in hydroelectric and tidal power plants.
RDI’s H-ADCP uses patented Broadband signal processing to obtain the best combination of range, resolution and data quality compared with narrowband solutions. The new system measures water velocities up to five meters per second at as many as 128 individual points, centered at one depth. Field results from a wide variety of sites will be presented.

Submitted on January 22, 2003