Electricite de France (EDF) is funding a 3-year PhD work on acoustic scintillation flow metering, in association with Hydro-Quebec and ASL AQFlow. The PhD project aims at improving the discharge estimation when hydraulic conditions are not ideal for acoustic scintillation measurements, as well as providing a better understanding of the effects of sources of interference which can be encountered during the measurement process and can cause inaccuracies in the velocity estimation. In order to achieve these objectives, a fast and portable data acquisition system was set up, which relies on high speed acquisition cards. Each four channel acquisition card can be connected in parallel with up to three others, thus forming a high speed multi channel data acquisition (DAQ) system. A first test of this DAQ system was performed at one of Hydro-Quebec's hydroelectric plant. As the ASFM replaced the existing trash rack elements, special equipment was designed and built to create turbulence in the flow necessary for the acoustic scintillation to operate. HPP performance tests by Hydro Quebec were duplicated with the EDF measurement system which recorded the acoustic scintillation raw signals. Using the resources available at the time, the acquired time series have a lower resolution than those provided by the Acoustic Scintillation Flow Meter (ASFM). However, valid velocity estimates are possible even at this lower resolution.
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