Wave height measurements in the Delta Flume : Nortek AWAC Acoustic wave current profiler with AcousticSurface Tracking

Within the framework of a measurement campaign in the Ijsselmeer wave conditions are measured on 6 locations in the Ijsselmeer. The purpose of these measurements is collect data to validate and improve the existing numerical wave models. By extrapolating these long term measurements extreme (design) wave conditions can be determined.
The current wave height meters (resistant type) have relatively height maintenance costs and the measurements are regularly disturbed by non-linearity’s and algae. For this study four alternative wave height meters were tested in the large scale wave facility of WL | Delft Hydraulics (Delta flume). The purpose of this study was to verify the performance of the instruments for wave conditions which are typical for the Ijsselmeer region and to discover the limitations of the instruments for the tested conditions. Therefore a range of wave conditions were tested, from daily wave conditions to more extreme situations.
The results were presented in a Dutch report (‘Golfhoogtemetingen in de Deltagoot; Vergelijking tussen 5 golfhoogtemeters', H4617 december 2005). This English report is a summary in which the results for the instrument AWAC are presented.