Errors in Acoustic Doppler Profiler Velocity Measurements Caused by Flow Disturbance
Publication: Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 133, Issue 12
Abstract
Acoustic Doppler current profilers (ADCPs) are commonly used to measure streamflow and water velocities in rivers and streams. This paper presents laboratory, field, and numerical model evidence of errors in ADCP measurements caused by flow disturbance. A state-of-the-art three-dimensional computational fluid dynamic model is validated with and used to complement field and laboratory observations of flow disturbance and its effect on measured velocities. Results show that near the instrument, flow velocities measured by the ADCP are neither the undisturbed stream velocity nor the velocity of the flow field around the ADCP. The velocities measured by the ADCP are biased low due to the downward flow near the upstream face of the ADCP and upward recovering flow in the path of downstream transducer, which violate the flow homogeneity assumption used to transform beam velocities into Cartesian velocity components. The magnitude of the bias is dependent on the deployment configuration, the diameter of the instrument, and the approach velocity, and was observed to range from more than 25% at from the transducers to less than 1% at about from the transducers for the scenarios simulated.
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Acknowledgments
The U.S Geological Survey and Environment Canada provided financial support for this work. The writers are grateful to Mariano I. Cantero for providing valuable suggestions and to Rodrigo A. Musalem and Francisco Pedocchi for their assistance with laboratory experiments.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 133 • Issue 12 • December 2007
Pages: 1411 - 1420
Copyright
© 2007 ASCE.
History
Received: Apr 20, 2006
Accepted: Aug 7, 2007
Published online: Dec 1, 2007
Published in print: Dec 2007
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