Near-transducer errors in ADCP measurements: experimental findings

Acoustic Doppler current profilers (ADCPs) are not able to accurately determine velocity near their transducers and near the bed. These limitations have restricted the use of ADCPs to flow depths that are large enough to allow acquisition of few directly measured velocity data that can be subsequently used to accurately estimate vertical velocity profiles and flow discharge in cross sections. While the causes that make ADCPs unable to collect data in the near-bed region are relatively well documented, the causes of near-transducer errors have not yet been fully understood and are only partly documented. We present results from an experimental study aimed at characterizing the systematic errors due to the combined effect of acoustic interference and instrument-induced flow disturbance near a Janus-configured ADCP. The study comprises: (1) concurrent measurements with an ADCP and an acoustic Doppler velocimeter (ADV) under the ADCP; (2) measurements of the flow disturbance produced by the ADCP in the vertical and horizontal planes; and (3) ADV measurements along the path of the acoustic beams ensonified by the ADCP during a measurement. Results suggest that ADCPs bias low the velocity profiles with respect to the undisturbed velocity profiles, mostly because of the flow disturbance induced by the ADCP, with acoustic effects playing a secondary role. For the range of flows we studied, both undisturbed and disturbed profiles exhibit similar shapes when plotted in dimensionless form, with the bulk flow velocity and the ADCP diameter (D) as characteristic scales. The differences between the undisturbed and the ADCP-disturbed profiles extend up to a distance of about 1.SD from the ADCP, except for the profiles measured at locations where the flow depth is close to D for which the boundary layer induced by the ADCP interacts with the one induced by the flume bed. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)HY.1943-7900.0000173 CE Database subject headings: Open channel flow; Flow measurement; Errors; Experimentation. Author keywords: Open-channel flow; River discharge; Flow measurements; Hydrometry; Acoustic Doppler current profilers; ADCP elemental errors; ADCP measurement uncertainty.