PNNL

Abstract

Turbulence is known to affect the performance and survivability of tidal turbines, yet characterization of turbulence in the field remains limited. Here, we refine and demonstrate a new approach to turbulence measurements, in which an array of multiple Acoustic Doppler Velocimeters (ADV) is suspended above the seabed at the hub height of a tidal turbine. These measurements provide information on the intensity, structure, and coherence of turbulence across the scale of a turbine rotor ( 10 m). Motion correction of the moored ADV data is essential to this approach and is verified using the turbulent kinetic energy spectra. Additional measurements include a bottommounted 5-beam Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler, from which scales can be assessed using the velocities a separation distances along a given beam. These methods are demonstrated with data collected at the site of the Snohomish PUD pilot project in Admiralty Inlet, Puget Sound, WA (USA). Coherent motion is found to be largely isotropic, such that coherence is high only at scales less than the advective length scale or the water depth, whichever is less.