Abstract
Since 2015, a tidal power installation of 1.2MW operates in a sluice gate of the Eastern Scheldt storm surge barrier (The Netherlands). The attenuation of the flow by the Horizontal Axis Tidal Turbines (HATTs) and the potential nearand far-field effects are investigated in a four year research project. This article presents the analysis of a 24-hour Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) dataset of the near-wakes of the HATTs. The gate geometry dictates the mean near-wake velocities and forces the wake velocity deficit induced by the gate and the HATT to recover faster than in a free stream situation. The HATTs increase the turbulence intensity in the near-wake and contribute to the turbulence scales with a size smaller than the rotor diameter. The insights into the near-wake characteristics and turbulence structure contribute to future modelling studies on the flow influence on the downstream seabed stability.