Model development for sustainable ecological flows in hydropower

Purpose and goal

The purpose of the project is to further develop existing models and methods for fauna passages and sustainable ecological flows based on both the hydropower industry´s business operations and on environmental aspects. It is realized by giving individuals and organizations greater knowledge of modern tools in modelling, the industry´s conditions and the environmental needs. Ejectors for creating sensible water have been investigated with good results and can thus be seen as a tool to streamline passage solutions.

Expected results and effects

By using ejectors to accelerate the surrounding water mass, one can create an attraction water that can reduce the amount of water that is spilled but create the same attraction water flow and hopefully the same attractiveness for the guiding of fish. Thus, a more sustainable ecological flow with limited production impact is created. In other words, the project has created better conditions for designing more sustainable ecological flows through the methods used here. The project has furthermore generated input for further studies on attraction water flow.

Planned approach and implementation

The study has been of a generic nature where analytical, numerical and experimental approaches have been applied to ejectors. The experimental set-up has been mainly in lab scale but also a first attempt has been made in a river. The analytical and numerical methods have been used on all scales. These experiences have been applied to a real case where a preliminary study for upgrading is ongoing, preliminary results have shown good potential to reduce the spilling but with retained attraction water flow.