Can Fish Morphological Characteristics be Used to Re-design Hydroelectric Turbines?
Safe fish passage affects not only migratory species, but also populations of resident fish by altering biomass, biodiversity, and gene flow. Consequently, it is important to estimate turbine passage survival of a wide range of susceptible fish. Although fish-friendly turbines show promise for reducing turbine passage mortality, experimental data on their beneficial effects are limited to only a few species, mainly salmon and trout. For thousands of untested species and sizes of fish, the particular causes of turbine passage mortality and the benefits of fish-friendly turbine designs remain unknown. It is not feasible to measure the turbine-passage survival of every species of fish in every hydroelectric turbine design. We are attempting to predict fish mortality based on an improved understanding of turbine-passage stresses (pressure, shear stress, turbulence, strike) and information about the morphological, behavioral, and physiological characteristics of different fish taxa that make them susceptible to the stresses. Computational fluid dynamics and blade strike models of the turbine environment are re-examined in light of laboratory and field studies of fish passage effects. Comparisons of model-predicted stresses to measured injuries and mortalities will help identify fish survival thresholds and the aspects of turbines that are most in need of re-design. The coupled model and fish morphology evaluations will enable us to make predictions of turbine-passage survival among untested fish species, for both conventional and advanced turbines, and to guide the design of hydroelectric turbines to improve fish passage survival.
- Research Organization:
- Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-76RL01830
- OSTI ID:
- 1030866
- Report Number(s):
- PNNL-SA-81384; EB4500000; TRN: US201124%%497
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: HydroVision Brazil: Nature's Power Source, September 20-22, 2011, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Environmental Effects of Hydrokinetic Turbines on Fish: Desktop and Laboratory Flume Studies
Identifying the Effects on Fish of Changes in Water Pressure during Turbine Passage