Abstract
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 higher strike velocities and thinner blades contributed to increased mortality. Several injury types were significantly associated with increased mortality, including injuries to the operculum, gills, viscera, heart, liver, swim bladder, muscle, and bone fractures. Results from this study will be used to define biologically based design criteria that can be used by turbine designers to improve designs (e.g., increased leading-edge thickness and slower turbine speeds) to minimize the probability and impact of blade strike.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 2350-2363 |
| Number of pages | 14 |
| Journal | Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences |
| Volume | 76 |
| Issue number | 12 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2019 |
Funding
This research was funded by the US Department of Energy’s Waterpower Program to Oak Ridge National Laboratory/UT-Battelle, LLC under contract No. DE-AC05–00OR22725. Animal use approval was granted by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Animal Care and Use Committee (protocol No. 0444). Michael Dubois and Skip Orlowski (Electric Motion Company, Inc.) were instrumental in the design and construction of the blade strike simulator. Fish used in this study were obtained from the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency’s Tellico hatchery, Big Fish Outfitters Bait Store in Lenoir City, Tennessee, and Southeastern Pond Management in Jackson, Tennessee. Special thanks go to Chioma Anugwom and Itohan Osaquwa for experimental assistance; Daniel Deng and Lindy Rauchenstein of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory for assistance with the Sensor Fish and subsequent data analysis; Deborah Counce (ORNL) for editorial review; and Gary Johnson (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, PNNL) and Shelaine Curd (ORNL) for project management. Reviews from Alison Colotelo, Marshall Richmond, and Daniel Deng of PNNL and two anonymous reviewers strengthened the content of this manuscript. Ridge, TN, 37831, USA. Corresponding author: Mark S. Bevelhimer (email: [email protected]). This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC under contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the US Department of Energy. The United States Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the United States Government retains a non-exclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, world-wide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for United States Government purposes. The Department of Energy will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan (http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan).