Analyzing ADV Data Using WinADV

Since their introduction in 1993, acoustic Doppler velocity meters (ADV's) have quickly become valuable tools for laboratory and field investigations of flow in rivers, canals, reservoirs, the oceans, and around hydraulic structures and in laboratory scale models. The post-processing and analysis of ADV data present unique requirements compared to traditional current-metering equipment, due to the types of data obtained, the analyses that are possible, and the need for filtering of the data to ensure that technical limitations of ADV's do not adversely affect the quality of the results. One useful software tool for this purpose is the WinADV program, written by the author for use in the Bureau of Reclamation's Water Resources Research Laboratory, and made available to the public via the Internet since 1996. The program is designed for post-processing of real time data files (*.adv files) recorded by SonTek and Nortek ADV's, and offers powerful filtering and processing options that make it valuable for field and laboratory studies. The software has been regularly upgraded to maintain compatibility with new file formats, and also now has limited capability to analyze data collected by SonTek's Argonaut series of monostatic Doppler current meters. This paper describes the software and illustrates the application of some of its advanced features to typical hydraulic measurement situations.