Fish Passage Assessment of an Advanced Hydropower Turbine and Conventional Turbine Using Blade-strike Modeling
In the Columbia and Snake River basins, several species of Pacific salmon were listed under the Endangered Species Act of 1973 due to significant declines of fish population. Dam operators and design engineers are thus faced with the task of making those hydroelectric facilities more ecologically friendly through changes in hydro-turbine design and operation. Public Utility District No. 2 of Grant County, Washington, applied for re-licensing from the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to replace the 10 turbines at Wanapum Dam with advanced hydropower turbines that were designed to increase power generation and improve fish passage conditions. We applied both deterministic and stochastic blade-strike models to the newly installed turbine and an existing turbine. Modeled probabilities were compared to the results of a large-scale live fish survival study and a sensor fish study under the same operational parameters. Overall, injury rates predicted by the deterministic model were higher than experimental rates of injury while those predicted by the stochastic model were in close agreement with experiment results. Fish orientation at the time of entry into the plane of the leading edges of the turbine runner blades was an important factor contributing to uncertainty in modeled results. The advanced design turbine had slightly higher modeled injury rates than the existing turbine design; however, there was no statistical evidence that suggested significant differences in blade-strike injuries between the two turbines and the hypothesis that direct fish survival rate through the advanced hydropower turbine is equal or better than that through the conventional turbine could not be rejected.
- Research Organization:
- Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-76RL01830
- OSTI ID:
- 1001084
- Report Number(s):
- PNNL-SA-75408; EB4402010; TRN: US201101%%762
- Journal Information:
- Energies, 4(1):57-67, Vol. 4, Issue 1
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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