An acoustic sensor of velocity for benthic boundary layer studies
Citable URI
https://hdl.handle.net/1912/10590DOI
10.1575/1912/10590Keyword
Boundary layer; Underwater acoustics; BenthosAbstract
The techniques of flow measurement which have been successful in
laboratory studies of boundary layer turbulence are difficult to use in the
ocean; and the current meters penerally used in the ocean are not suited to
measuring bottom boundary layer flow . A suitable sensor for bottom turbulence
measurements should measure vector components, respond linearly to
these components, maintain an accurate zero point, disturb the flow negligibly
or in a well predicted way, and sense a small enough volume to
represent the important scales of the flow. We have constructed an acoustic
travel time sensor in a configuration that will allow vector components of
the flow to be measured with sufficient accuracy to compute Reynolds stress
at a point 50 cm above the bottom. This sensor responds linearly to horizontal
and vertical flows in flume tests. When the flow is neither horizontal
nor vertical, the wake from one acoustic transducer may interfere
with the measurement along one sensing path but there is sufficient redundancy
in the determination to reject this path and still resolve the
vector velocity. An instrument· using four of these sensors is being designed
to measure Reynolds stress in the lower six meters of the ocean.
Description
Also published in: Proceedings
of the 8th International Colloquium on Ocean
Hydrodynamics
Suggested Citation
Williams, A. J., & Tochko, J. S. (1978). An acoustic sensor of velocity for benthic boundary layer studies. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. https://doi.org/10.1575/1912/10590Related items
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