Author(s): Mike Jesson; John Bridgeman; Mark Sterling
Linked Author(s):
Keywords: Despiking; Post-processing; Velocity time-series; Software
Abstract: The recording of high-frequency velocity time-series is common in hydraulic research in which turbulent velocity fields are investigated. Post-processing and analysis of large quantities of such experimental data can be a time consuming process. Spreadsheets rapidly become unmanageably large, or require data to be split over multiple workbooks; packages such as Matlab can be useful but require scripting skills and do not provide intuitive user interfaces. This paper details the latest developments to a software package, “the VSA”, which streamlines the batch processing of velocity time-series data. This software, which may be downloaded at no cost, provides a graphical interface through which time-series data from multiple files may be imported and displayed. The VSA will parse a range of file types, including the binary files output by Nortek Vectrino+, Vectrino II and Vector instruments, those from TFI Cobra probes and plain text, CSV files. Mean values, turbulence parameters, and other statistical data of interest to engineers are automatically calculated and may be graphically displayed. Filtering and spectral analysis functionality are built-in, as is the ability to export data to Excel or Matlab for the production of publication-quality figures. Recent additions to the VSA include both discrete and continuous wavelet transform algorithms, and multi-run, ensemble averaging. This functionality is detailed in this paper.
Year: 2017