Measurements of Surface-Layer Turbulence in a Wide Norwegian Fjord Using Synchronized Long-Range Doppler Wind Lidars

Abstract

Three synchronized pulsed Doppler wind lidars were deployed from May 2016 to June 2016 on the shores of a wide Norwegian fjord called Bjørnafjord to study the wind characteristics at the proposed location of a planned bridge. The purpose was to investigate the potential of using lidars to gather information on turbulence characteristics in the middle of a wide fjord. The study includes the analysis of the single-point and two-point statistics of wind turbulence, which are of major interest to estimate dynamic wind loads on structures. The horizontal wind components were measured by the intersecting scanning beams, along a line located 25 m above the sea surface, at scanning distances up to 4.6 km. For a mean wind velocity above 8 m⋅s−1, the recorded turbulence intensity was below 0.06 on average. Even though the along-beam spatial averaging leads to an underestimated turbulence intensity, such a value indicates a roughness length much lower than provided in the European standard EN 1991-1-4:2005. The normalized spectrum of the along-wind component was compared to the one provided by the Norwegian Petroleum Industry Standard and the Norwegian Handbook for bridge design N400. A good overall agreement was observed for wave-numbers below 0.02 m−1. The along-beam spatial averaging in the adopted set-up prevented a more detailed comparison at larger wave-numbers, which challenges the study of wind turbulence at scanning distances of several kilometres. The results presented illustrate the need to complement lidar data with point-measurement to reduce the uncertainties linked to the atmospheric stability and the spatial averaging of the lidar probe volume. The measured lateral coherence was associated with a decay coefficient larger than expected for the along-wind component, with a value around 21 for a mean wind velocity bounded between 10 m⋅s−1 and 14 m⋅s−1, which may be related to a stable atmospheric stratification.