Discharge Measurement Using FlowQuest Acoustic Current Profilers

For the discharge measurement application, the standard FlowQuest 300, 600, 1000 or 2000 acoustic current profiler is steadily deployed on a moving vessel such as a catamaran, a small floating platform or a small boat with the transducer pointing downward. The profiler measures the water velocities, the ship's velocities, the depth and other related information required for discharge measurement by doing current ensemble and bottom tracking pings alternatively. Advanced algorithms are utilized to calculate the sectional discharge and the total discharge in real-time. The sectional discharge, total discharge, the ship's trace, the bottom depth and related velocities are displayed in the FlowQuest software. The FlowQuest Discharge Measurement software can also be used for user friendly off-line analysis. The user can select different measurement starting and ending points and different models to revise and optimize the discharge calculation results. With very fast ping rate, automatically adjusted cell size and no ambiguity error, the Discharge Measurement function in the FlowQuest profilers is capable of more accurately measuring both normal and unsteady (or tidally affected) flow. It is also dramatically faster than conventional discharge measurement systems and has improved accuracy.


Broadband (AFA) Option

Available in FlowQuest 600 and 2000 acoustic current profilers. This option significantly reduces the discharge measurement minimum range based on velocity measurement. Lightning strike protection option (Option X) is also available.

FlowQuest 2000: 0.2 meter
FlowQuest 600: 0.4 meter

The FlowQuest 600-AFA and 2000-AFA acoustic current profilers each operate at two different frequencies. For short range measurements, a high operating frequency is used. For longer range measurements, a low operating frequency is used.


Center Beam (BC) Option

Available in FlowQuest 600 and 2000 acoustic current profilers. This option introduces an extra center beam in the transducer for altitude measurement. The maximum altitude for this option is 100 meters. Lightning strike protection option (Option X) is also available.

The operating frequency of the Center Beam option is 600 kHz.


FlowQuest 2000-AFA-Micro Option

This option is based on the FlowQuest 2000-AFA acoustic current profiler with reduced profiling range and a seamless integration with a small tethered boat for easy deployments.



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© LinkQuest, Inc. 1999 Last Updated May 2015