Joanne P. Duncan

Use of an autonomous sensor to evaluate the biological performance of the advanced turbine at Wanapum Dam

Hydropower is the largest renewable energy resource in the United States and the world. However, hydropower dams have adverse ecological impacts because migrating fish may be injured or killed when they pass through hydroturbines. In the Columbia and Snake River basins, dam operators and engineers are required to make those hydroelectric facilities more fish-friendly through changes in hydroturbine design and operation after fish population declines and the subsequent listing of several species of Pacific salmon under the Endangered Species Act of 1973. Public Utility District No. 2 of Grant County, Washington, requested authorization from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to replace the ten turbines at Wanapum Dam with advanced hydropower turbines designed to improve survival for fish passing through the turbines while improving operation efficiency and increasing power generation. As an additional measure to the primary metric of direct injury and mortality rates of juvenile Chinook salmon using ...

Six-Degree-of-Freedom Sensor Fish Design and Instrumentation

Fish passing through dams may be injured or killed despite advances in turbine design, project operations and other fish bypass systems. The six-degree-of-freedom (6DOF) Sensor Fish device is an autonomous sensor package that characterizes the physical conditions and physical stresses to which fish are exposed when they pass through complex hydraulic environments. It has been used to identify the locations and operations where conditions are severe enough to injure or kill fish. During the design process, a set of governing equations of motion for the Sensor Fish was derived and simulated to understand the design implications of instrument selection and placement within the body of the device. The Sensor Fish package includes three rotation sensors, three acceleration sensors, a pressure sensor, and a temperature sensor with a sampling frequency of 2,000 Hz. Its housing is constructed of clear polycarbonate plastic. It is 24.5 mm in diameter and 90 mm in length and weighs about 43 g, similar to the size and density of a yearling salmon smolt. The accuracy of the pressure sensor was determined to be within 0.2 psi. In laboratory acceptance tests, the relative errors of both the linear acceleration and angular velocity measurements were determined to be less than 5%. An exposure is defined as a significant event when the acceleration reaches predefined thresholds. Based on the different characteristic of acceleration and rotation velocities, the exposure event is categorized as either a collision between the Sensor Fish and a solid structure or shear caused by turbulence. Since its development in 2005, the 6DOF Sensor Fish has been deployed successfully at many major dams in the United States.

Data Overview for Sensor Fish Samples Acquired at Ice Harbor, John Day, and Bonneville II Dams in 2005, 2006, and 2007

The purpose of this work was to acquire Sensor Fish data on turbine passage at Bonneville II, John Day, and Ice Harbor dams for later analysis and use. The original data sets have been entered into a database and are being maintained by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory pending delivery to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers when requested. This report provides documentation for the data sets acquired and details about the operations of the Sensor Fish and interpretation of Sensor Fish data that will be necessary for later use of the acquired data. A limited review of the acquired data was conducted to assess its quality and to extract information that might prove useful to its later use.

Acoustic Telemetry Evaluation of Juvenile Salmonid Passage and Survival at John Day Dam, 2011

This report presents survival, behavioral, and fish passage results for tagged yearling Chinook salmon and juvenile steelhead as part of a survival study conducted at John Day Dam during spring 2011. This study was designed to evaluate the passage and survival of yearling Chinook salmon and juvenile steelhead to assist managers in identifying dam operations for compliance testing as stipulated by the 2008 Federal Columbia River Power System Biological Opinion and the 2008 Columbia Basin Fish Accords. Survival estimates were based on a paired-release survival model.

Characterization of Fish Passage Conditions through a Francis Turbine, Spillway, and Regulating Outlet at Detroit Dam, Oregon, Using Sensor Fish, 2009

Fish passage conditions through two spillways, a Francis turbine, and a regulating outlet (RO) at Detroit Dam on the North Santiam River in Oregon were evaluated by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Portland District, using Sensor Fish devices. The objective of the study was to describe and compare passage exposure conditions, identifying potential fish injury regions within the routes. The study was performed in July, October, and December 2009 concurrent with HI-Z balloon-tag studies by Normandeau Associates, Inc. Sensor Fish data were analyzed to estimate 1) exposure conditions, particularly exposure to severe strike, collision, and shear events by passage route sub-regions; 2) differences in passage conditions between passage routes; and 3) relationships to live-fish injury and mortality data estimates. Comparison of the three passage routes evaluated at Detroit Dam indicates that the RO passage route through the 5-ft gate opening was relatively the safest route for fish passage under the operating conditions tested; turbine passage was the most deleterious. These observations were supported also by the survival and malady estimates obtained from live-fish testing. Injury rates were highest for turbine and spillway passage. However, none of the passage routes tested is safe for juvenile salmonid passage.

Characterizing the Fish Passage Environment at The Dalles Dam Spillway: 2001-2004

The spill environment at The Dalles Dam in 2001-2004 was characterized using a field-deployed autonomous sensor (the so-called Sensor Fish), computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling, and Lagrangian particle tracking. The sensor fish has a self-contained capability to digitally the record pressure and triaxial accelerations it was exposed to following its release into the spillway. After recovery downstream of the tailrace, the data stored in the memory of the sensor are downloaded and stored for analysis. The spillway, stilling basin, and tailrace hydrodynamics were simulated using an unsteady, free-surface, three-dimensional CFD code that solved the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations in conjunction with a two-equation turbulence model. The results from the CFD simulations were then used in a Lagrangian particle tracking model that included the effects of mass, drag, and buoyancy in the particle equation of motion. A random walk method was used to simulate the effects of small-scale turbulence on the particle motion. Several operational and structural conditions were evaluated using the Sensor Fish, CFD, and particle tracking. Quantifying events such as strike and stilling basin retention time characterized exposure conditions in the spill environment.