Water wave height measurements using laser beam reflections

The paper addresses the calculation and theory involved in the analysis of detection and measurement of the shape of a water surface using laser beam reflections. The experiment is carried out in a closed environment and the method is developed mainly for indoor testing. A set of general equations are formulated to describe the water surface based on the set of data collected from the measurements. To test the validity of the equations, a test is conducted in a miniature water tank. The water surface is excited by a electrically powered paddle to generate waves. A laser is mounted above the tank pointing towards the surface at an angle. The laser beam reflections are detected by a sensor array. The data collected are used as input into the equations to calculate the water surface state. The results of the experiments are found to correlate favorably to the calculated results.