Fish injury and mortality caused by simulated impacts from turbine blades

Saylor, Ryan; Bevelhimer, Mark; Pracheil, Brenda; Fortner, Allison; Sterling, Dustin; Deck, Kendra; Deck, Emine; Qsaquwa, Itohan; Anugwom, Chioma

doi:10.21951/1755094

Title: Fish injury and mortality caused by simulated impacts from turbine blades

Dataset
Other Related Research

Abstract

Riverine fishes impacted by hydroelectric dams often pass through hydropower turbines during annual downstream migrations. During turbine passage, fish may experience a suite of stressors including rapid pressure changes, exposure to hydraulic shear, and impacts from turbine blades or collisions with stationary structures. To better understand the effects of blade strike impact on rates of fish injury and mortality, we conducted controlled experiments on nine species of riverine fishes. Two main treatment effects were investigated relative to 1) aspects of the turbine blade and 2) changes relative to where the strike impacted the fish itself. Blade impact velocity (meters per second) ranged from 4.7 to 13.6 and blade leading edge thicknesses of 19, 26, 52, or 76 millimeters were also used in these experiments. Impacts with the fish could vary by location (head, mid-body, or tail), orientation (dorsal, lateral, or ventral surfaces), and angle of strike (45, 90, or 135°). Exact treatment conditions varied by groups of 20 to 25 individuals and also included 3 to 5 control fish. Anesthetized fish (including controls) were placed in the simulated blade strike apparatus, struck (if a treatment fish), tagged for identification, and were observed for one-hour post-strike to assess survival. Following observation,more »« less

Authors:: Saylor, Ryan; Bevelhimer, Mark; Pracheil, Brenda; Fortner, Allison; Sterling, Dustin; Deck, Kendra; Deck, Emine; Qsaquwa, Itohan; Anugwom, Chioma

Contributors:

Data Collector:

Fortner, Allison; Sterling, Dustin; Deck, Kendra; Deck, Emine; Qsaquwa, Itohan; Anugwom, Chioma

Publication Date:: Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2020

DOE Contract Number:: AC05-00OR22725

Research Org.:: Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Water Power Technologies Office

Subject:: 13 HYDRO ENERGY

Keywords:: Impact trauma; mortal injuries; riverine fishes; turbine passage stressor; hydropower

OSTI Identifier:: 1755094

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.21951/1755094

Citation Formats


                    Saylor, Ryan, Bevelhimer, Mark, Pracheil, Brenda, Fortner, Allison, Sterling, Dustin, Deck, Kendra, Deck, Emine, Qsaquwa, Itohan, and Anugwom, Chioma. Fish injury and mortality caused by simulated impacts from turbine blades.  United States: N. p., 2020. 
        Web.  doi:10.21951/1755094.

Copy to clipboard


                    Saylor, Ryan, Bevelhimer, Mark, Pracheil, Brenda, Fortner, Allison, Sterling, Dustin, Deck, Kendra, Deck, Emine, Qsaquwa, Itohan, & Anugwom, Chioma. Fish injury and mortality caused by simulated impacts from turbine blades.  United States.  doi:https://doi.org/10.21951/1755094

Copy to clipboard


                    Saylor, Ryan, Bevelhimer, Mark, Pracheil, Brenda, Fortner, Allison, Sterling, Dustin, Deck, Kendra, Deck, Emine, Qsaquwa, Itohan, and Anugwom, Chioma. 2020.  
"Fish injury and mortality caused by simulated impacts from turbine blades".  United States.  doi:https://doi.org/10.21951/1755094.  https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1755094. Pub date:Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2020

Copy to clipboard


                    
@article{osti_1755094,

  title        = {Fish injury and mortality caused by simulated impacts from turbine blades},

  author       = {Saylor, Ryan and Bevelhimer, Mark and Pracheil, Brenda and Fortner, Allison and Sterling, Dustin and Deck, Kendra and Deck, Emine and Qsaquwa, Itohan and Anugwom, Chioma},

  abstractNote = {Riverine fishes impacted by hydroelectric dams often pass through hydropower turbines during annual downstream migrations. During turbine passage, fish may experience a suite of stressors including rapid pressure changes, exposure to hydraulic shear, and impacts from turbine blades or collisions with stationary structures. To better understand the effects of blade strike impact on rates of fish injury and mortality, we conducted controlled experiments on nine species of riverine fishes. Two main treatment effects were investigated relative to 1) aspects of the turbine blade and 2) changes relative to where the strike impacted the fish itself. Blade impact velocity (meters per second) ranged from 4.7 to 13.6 and blade leading edge thicknesses of 19, 26, 52, or 76 millimeters were also used in these experiments. Impacts with the fish could vary by location (head, mid-body, or tail), orientation (dorsal, lateral, or ventral surfaces), and angle of strike (45, 90, or 135°). Exact treatment conditions varied by groups of 20 to 25 individuals and also included 3 to 5 control fish. Anesthetized fish (including controls) were placed in the simulated blade strike apparatus, struck (if a treatment fish), tagged for identification, and were observed for one-hour post-strike to assess survival. Following observation, all fish were euthanized to perform detailed external and internal examinations for injuries. Other characteristics of the fish reported in these data are standard or total length (centimeters), wet mass (grams), and sex (for some species). Simulated impact testing was successfully performed on more than 2500 individual fish nine species (gizzard shad, rainbow trout, hybrid striped bass, bluegill sunfish, American eel, American paddlefish, brook trout, American shad, and blueback herring) over a five-year period. In general, these data have confirmed impacts may be severely injurious and cause direct mortality if riverine fishes are exposed to strikes from hydropower turbine blades.},

  doi          = {10.21951/1755094},

  journal      = {},

  number       = ,

  volume       = ,

  place        = {United States},

  year         = {Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2020},

  month        = {Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2020}

}

Copy to clipboard

Dataset:

View Dataset

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21951/1755094

Save / Share:

Export Metadata

Save to My Library

Similar records in DOE Data Explorer and OSTI.GOV collections:

An Overview of Experimental Efforts to Understand the Mechanisms of Fish Injury and Mortality Caused by Hydropower Turbine Blade Strike

Technical Report Bevelhimer, Mark S. ; Pracheil, Brenda M. ; Fortner, Allison M. ; ...

Injury and mortality of fish during downstream passage through hydropower turbines is one of the most significant concerns with regards to hydropower impacts on fish. Downstream turbine passage has the potential to be detrimental to fish due to a complex suite of stressors that are experienced as fish pass through a turbine, which can lead to injury and/or mortality. These stressors include rapid pressure changes, shear forces, mechanical strike from turbine runners, and collisions with turbine housing (Pracheil et al. 2016a). Hydropower owners/operators are frequently ordered to mitigate this threat through various means, such as installing racks or bypass systemsmore »« less
Quantifying mortality and injury susceptibility for two morphologically disparate fishes exposed to simulated turbine blade strike

Journal Article Saylor, Ryan ; Fortner, Allison M. ; Bevelhimer, Mark - Hydrobiologia

Passage of fishes through hydropower turbines and water pumping stations may cause mortal injury as the result of exposure to blade strike impact. Laboratory trials of simulated blade strike on two morphologically distinct fishes, American eel (Anguilla rostrata) and bluegill sunfish (Lepomis macrochirus) were undertaken to assess injury and mortality rates. We hypothesized that bluegill would have comparable rates of injury and mortality to other laterally compressed fishes while anguilliform American eel would be more resistant to injury. American eel had low observed mortality rates at the highest velocity tested (13.6 m/s), but many fish were observed with vertebral fracturesmore »« less
Cited by 10
Mortality and injury assessment for three species of fish exposed to simulated turbine blade strike

Journal Article Bevelhimer, Mark S. ; Pracheil, Brenda M. ; Fortner, Allison M. ; ... - Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences

Injury and mortality of fish during downstream passage through hydropower turbines is among the leading direct impacts of hydropower. Understanding the relationships among various strike variables and injury and mortality rates are necessary for improvements in turbine design. We subjected three species of fish to simulated blade strike in laboratory studies with different blade thicknesses, impact velocities, and body orientations to develop relationships between these variables and probability of injury and mortality. Midbody strikes resulted in higher mortality than head strikes, and tail strikes produced the least mortality. Lateral strikes caused more mortality than dorsal and ventral strikes, and highermore »« less
Cited by 13
Fish scale-loss caused by simulated hydraulic shear stress

Dataset Bevelhimer, Mark ; Pracheil, Brenda ; Saylor, Ryan ; ...

Riverine fishes found within streams impacted by hydropower also often pass through hydropower turbines during annual downstream migrations. During turbine passage events, fish may experience a suite of stressors including rapid pressure changes, impacts from turbine blades, and exposure to hydraulic shear. Scale-loss is often observed in fish collected below dams and hydraulic shear is the most likely cause of this trauma. While exposure to shear may cause other injuries, scale-loss appears to be the most common non-lethal injury observed to date. We sought to quantify how hydraulic shear may cause scale-loss in rainbow trout, gizzard shad, and hybrid stripedmore »« less
Within and Among Fish Species Differences in Simulated Turbine Blade Strike Mortality: Limits on the Use of Surrogacy for Untested Species

Journal Article Saylor, Ryan ; Sterling, Dustin ; Bevelhimer, Mark ; ... - Water (Basel)

Use of surrogacy remains a useful method for prioritizing research on representatives of at-risk groups of fishes, yet quantifiable evidence in support of its use is generally not available. Blade strike impact represents one of the most traumatic stressors experienced by fish during non-volitional movements through hydropower turbines. Here, we use data generated from laboratory trials on blade strike impact experiments to directly test use of surrogacy for salmonid and clupeid fishes. Results of logistic regression indicated that a -taxonomic (genus) variable was not a significant predictor of mortality among large rainbow trout and brook trout. Similar results were foundmore »« less
Cited by 4

Similar Records