Observations of the vertical structure of turbulent oscillatory boundary layers above fixed roughness beds using a prototype wideband coherent Doppler profiler: 1. The oscillatory component of the flow

Abstract

Results are presented from an experimental investigation of rough turbulent oscillatory boundary layers using a prototype wideband bistatic coherent Doppler profiler. The profiler operates in the 1.2 MHz to 2.3 MHz frequency band and uses software‐defined radio technologies for digital control of the frequency content and shape of the transmit pulse and for digital complex demodulation of the received signals. Velocity profiles are obtained at sub‐millimeter range resolution and 100 Hz profiling rates (each profile being an ensemble average of 10 pulse pairs). The measurements were carried out above beds of fixed sand or gravel particles, with median grain diameters of 0.37 mm and 3.9 mm, respectively, oscillating sinusoidally at a 10 s period through excursions of 0.75 m to 1.5 m. The resulting vertical profiles of horizontal velocity magnitude and phase, with the vertical axis scaled by ℓ = κu∗m/ω, are comparable to similarly scaled profiles obtained using laser Doppler anemometry by Sleath (1987) and Jensen (1988). A key objective of the comparisons between the previous experiments and those reported here was to establish how close to the bed reliable velocity measurements can be made with the sonar. This minimum distance above the bed is estimated to be 5 ± 1 mm, a value approaching the 3 to 4 mm limit set by the path of least time.