Session D1 - CFD Improves Upstream Fish Passage at Hadley Falls
Location
UMass Amherst
Event Website
http://fishpassage.ecs.umass.edu/Conference2012/
Start Date
5-6-2012 11:10 AM
End Date
5-6-2012 11:30 AM
Description
A fishway entrance in the flood wall downstream of the Hadley Falls Hydroelectric Project spillway allows migrants moving upstream in the Connecticut River to access a fish lift approach channel. Attraction flow from this fishway entrance is provided to enhance fish passage, but flow over the spillway from the surface bypass weir and adjacent gate at the dam crest interferes with fish finding this entrance. This paper will discuss how computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was used to explore various options to modify the fishway entrance geometry and to effectively dissipate the energy of high velocity flows leaving the spillway apron near the fishway entrance. In particular, three options to improve fishway entrance flow conditions will be presented, including removal of the present entrance deflector wall, use of a fish-friendly turbine discharge, and adding a plunge pool in the spillway apron. For each option, the results of CFD simulations will be presented with an evaluation of the probable impact of flow patterns on upstream fish passage.
Session D1 - CFD Improves Upstream Fish Passage at Hadley Falls
UMass Amherst
A fishway entrance in the flood wall downstream of the Hadley Falls Hydroelectric Project spillway allows migrants moving upstream in the Connecticut River to access a fish lift approach channel. Attraction flow from this fishway entrance is provided to enhance fish passage, but flow over the spillway from the surface bypass weir and adjacent gate at the dam crest interferes with fish finding this entrance. This paper will discuss how computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was used to explore various options to modify the fishway entrance geometry and to effectively dissipate the energy of high velocity flows leaving the spillway apron near the fishway entrance. In particular, three options to improve fishway entrance flow conditions will be presented, including removal of the present entrance deflector wall, use of a fish-friendly turbine discharge, and adding a plunge pool in the spillway apron. For each option, the results of CFD simulations will be presented with an evaluation of the probable impact of flow patterns on upstream fish passage.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/fishpassage_conference/2012/June5/15
Comments
George Hecker is currently Senior Consultant at the Alden Research Laboratory, Inc., formerly serving Alden as Director and President from 1975 to 2000. Prior to joining Alden, he worked at Stone and Webster and the TVA. He has published widely on R&D in hydraulic engineering, recently focusing on further development of the Alden turbine of which he is co-inventor. He has worked on fish passage issues at Hadley Falls since the early 1990s. George has engineering degrees from Yale and MIT.