Analysis on the influence of water concentration on ADCP current measurement

Abstract

With the objective of improving the measure performance of Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) and promoting the level of marine environmental monitoring, the precision and accuracy of ADCP current measurement have been analyzed in detail based on the current flume with water concentration (0 - 20) kg/m3. The experiments indicated that the precision of ADCP current measurement is enhanced with the uprising of water concentration. The precision of ADCP measurement was significantly influenced by the water concentration when the current was (0.7-0.9) m/s, and it was less affected by the water concentration when the current was 0.3m/s. In addition, with the increase of water concentration, the accuracy of ADCP measurement increased at first and then decreased. The accuracy of current measurement was higher when the concentration was (9-11) kg/m3, and decreased in varying degrees outside this range. When the current was 1.1 m/s, the accuracy of ADCP was greatly affected by the concentration, while it was less affected by the concentration in the case that current is 0.3 m/s. The correlation analysis and conclusion can provide a reference not only for the research and development of ocean observation equipment, but also for marine scientific studies.