BioIndex testing of hydro-turbines is sought as an analog to the hydraulic index testing conducted on hydro-turbines to optimize their power production efficiency. In BioIndex testing the goal is to identify those operations within the range identified by Index testing where the survival of fish passing through the turbine is maximized. BioIndex testing includes the immediate tailrace region as well as the turbine environment between a turbine’s intake trashracks and the exit of its draft tube. The US Army Corps of Engineers and the Department of Energy have been evaluating a variety of means, such as numerical and physical turbine models, to investigate the quality of flow through a hydro-turbine and other aspects of the turbine environment that determine its safety for fish. The goal is to use these tools to develop hypotheses identifying turbine operations and predictions of their biological performance that can be tested at prototype scales. Acceptance of hypotheses would be the means for validation of new operating rules for the turbine tested that would be in place when fish were passing through the turbines. The overall goal of this project is to evaluate the performance of numerical blade strike models as a tool to aid development of testable hypotheses for bioIndexing. Evaluation of the performance of numerical blade strike models is accomplished by comparing predictions of fish mortality resulting from strike by turbine runner blades with observations made using live test fish at mainstem Columbia River Dams and with other predictions of blade strike made using observations of beads passing through a 1:25 scale physical turbine model.
Revised: December 7, 2005 |
Published: November 30, 2005