Insights into the performance of tidal flow in complex areas have been made using a shipboard acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP). This system was adopted to obtain detailed measurements of the tidal flow structure in an area off the Welsh coastline where tidal flow typically peak at 3-4 ms-1 during spring tides. This paper describes the importance of such field data for the calibration and validation of numerical models for tidal stream power generation.
