Comparison of ADCP measurements to Kuroshio current flow simulations for ocean current turbines

Abstract

Numerical simulations are compared to field measurements of ocean currents in the Tokara Strait in this work. The Kuroshio Current flows through this strait and an ongoing ocean current turbine device is under development to harness its energy. The usefulness for engineering design input of modeling flow conditions for a large domain in space and time motivates the use of the numerical simulations. Confidence in the accuracy of the simulations can be provided from this comparison to Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) observations during the summer of 2018 at four locations. Numerical simulations of ocean currents which overlap in time with the field observations are presented in an attempt to compare the data on a time-domain basis. The simulations were produced using a Princeton Ocean Model based JCOPE-T-Tokara500 model. The analysis describes the capability of the numerical model to match the flow profile throughout the water column in the time domain and on a statistical basis using histograms and rose diagrams. While instances of speed peaks in the measurement data possibly representing internal waves did not readily appear in the simulation, overall the analysis supports the continued use of simulation current flow for project design input.