Upstream Hydraulics of a Run-of-the River Hydropower Facility for Fish Entrainment Risk Assessment

Abstract

AbstractRun-of-the-river hydropower is a typical form of power generation in mountainous regions. This study investigates the velocity field upstream of Aberfeldie dam, a run-of-the river facility on the Bull River near Wardner, British Columbia, Canada. As is typical for these types of run-of-the river facilities, the headpond of this dam is very shallow (approximately 1 m deep) because of long term sediment deposition. Near the facility’s power intakes, a large scour hole has been created because of increased velocities induced by the intakes. This study conducted field measurements and developed a computational fluid dynamic (CFD) model to investigate the velocity field under various flow conditions. The CFD solver shows in a simplistic way that flow-induced bed shear stress likely causes a fluctuating, dynamic bed form that varies by season and the distance upstream, so that a consistent velocity pattern is seen across the entire headpond. The velocity field generated by the CFD solver is used to eval...