Development of a system to measure marine turbulence

Various transducers have been developed turbulent shear in the ocean. The airfoil probe with it's piezoceramic beam encapsulated in a rubber airfoil has the simplest electronic processing system. However, the beam is very fragile and displays unpredictable thermal effects. An airfoil probe with semiconductor strain gauges on an aluminium cantilever beam has been developed as an alternative to the piezoceramic beam. The probe was calibrated by exciting it with a known shear generated by the water flow from an oscillating nozzle. During the calibration the thermal sensitivity of the probe was established to be -1.7 % °C-1• The probe, along with it's high gain, low noise processing system, is fitted to a tethered free-fall vehicle. A solid state data logger situated in the vehicle is used to record the data generated by the turbulence probe and a pressure transducer. Field trials at St.Helena Bay and Hout Bay showed that the sensitivity of the system is 20 dB lower than that of similar systems using piezoceramic beams. The system is able to resolve turbulent dissipation levels above 10-8 W kg-1, making it useful in regions characterised by a typical mixed layer (dissipation level of 10-W kg-1); however, it's sensitivity is not adequate for deep sea measurements where dissipation levels may be as low as 10-10 W kg-1.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Department of Electrical Engineering

Year dc:date.issued

1989

Author dc:creator

• Main, Ian Cameron

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Jongens, A W D

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/6917

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/6917