Juvenile Salmon Bypass and CFD Tools for Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River

Flow characteristics within turbine intakes may adversely affect juvenile fish survival and may reduce fish guidance which adversely affects fish survival at large hydropower dams. The factors that affect the flows within these areas can be modeled efficiently and effectively with computational fluid dynamics techniques. These numerical models can be adapted readily to include existing and proposed engineering design features and operational conditions to identify the problem areas associated with fish passage and assist in developing solutions. This study shows how we adapted an existing model to provide decision-makers with information to serve as a basis for structural and operational changes to improve fish passage at a hydroelectric project.