Wind & Marine Energy Systems & StructuresAcademic Partners
Marilou Jourdain De Thieulloy
PhD Title - Uncertainty assessment of converging acoustic Doppler profiler systems for large-scale non-obtrusive 3-D velocity sensing applications.
Tidal turbines are subject to complex flow conditions, influencing power conversion rate, blade fatigue loading, reliability and O&M. Capturing the flow area of interest for tidal turbines applications, i.e. in front of the rotor plane, is complex due to its mid-water depth location, and its highly energetic and turbulent characteristics.
The research of this PhD focuses on assessing the error and uncertainty of a novel flow measurement instrument that has the potential to increase the spatio-temporal resolution at which remote field measurements can be made in the energetic flow environments. This instrument consists of multiple spatially-separated single beam acoustic Doppler profilers converging on a remote focal point.
Experimental study of the sources of measurement error and uncertainty associated with this instrument is carried out in a controlled laboratory environment, and compared against theoretical models. Findings will show the advantage of the converging configuration over traditional diverging Acoustic Doppler Profilers and will provide confidence in measurements from converging configurations of acoustic Doppler profilers of customisable form (e.g. geometry, size and sensor number) parametrised for tidal turbines applications.
Email - marilou.jourdain@ed.ac.uk
Start Date - October 2017
Institution - University of Edinburgh
Degree - MSc Electronic and Electrical Engineering - ENSEA, MEngSc Sustainable Energy - University College Cork