PNNL

Abstract

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers-Portland District (CENWP) has ongoing work to improve the survival of juvenile salmonids (smolt) migrating past The Dalles Dam. As part of that effort, a spillwall was constructed to improve juvenile egress through the tailrace downstream of the stilling basin. The spillwall was designed to improve smolt survival by decreasing smolt retention time in the spillway tailrace and the exposure to predators on the spillway shelf. The spillwall guides spillway flows, and hence smolt, more quickly into the thalweg. In this study, an existing computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model was modified and used to characterize tailrace hydraulics between the new spillwall and the Washington shore for six different total river flows. The effect of spillway flow distribution was simulated for three spill patterns at the lowest total river flow. The commercial CFD solver, STAR-CD version 4.1, was used to solve the unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations together with the k-epsilon turbulence model. Free surface motion was simulated using the volume-of-fluid (VOF) technique. The model results were used in two ways. First, results graphics were provided to CENWP and regional fisheries agency representatives for use and comparison to the same flow conditions at a reduced-scale physical model. The CFD results were very similar in flow pattern to that produced by the reduced-scale physical model but these graphics provided a quantitative view of velocity distribution. During the physical model work, an additional spill pattern was tested. Subsequently, that spill pattern was also simulated in the numerical model. The CFD streamlines showed that the hydraulic conditions were likely to be beneficial to fish egress at the higher total river flows (120 kcfs and greater, uniform flow distribution). At the lowest flow case, 90 kcfs, it was necessary to use a non-uniform distribution. Of the three distributions tested, splitting the flow evenly between Bay 7 and Bay 8 had hydraulics deemed most beneficial for egress by CENWP fisheries biologists and regional fishery agency representatives. The numerical and physical model results were very similar, building confidence in both hydraulic tools.