Improving survival: injury and mortality of fish struck by blades with slanted, blunt leading edges

Amaral, Stephen V.; Watson, Sterling; Schneider, Abraham D.; Rackovan, Jenna; Baumgartner, Andrew

doi:10.1080/24705357.2020.1768166

Cited by 26 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…m/s. The high survival rates achieved present an opportunity to design blades for high strike survival while enabling economically feasible turbine and generator speeds (Amaral et al, 2020). The RHT is expected to be competitive with other variable-speed propeller turbines.…”

Section: Medium-to Long-term Innovative Design Optionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

2020 Cost Analysis of Hydropower Options at Non-Powered Dams

Oladosu

George²,

Wells³

2021

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Section: Medium-to Long-term Innovative Design Optionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

2020 Cost Analysis of Hydropower Options at Non-Powered Dams

Oladosu

George²,

Wells³

2021

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“…We positioned the accelerometer posterior to where the operculum would be on a real fish. This location represents the mid-body area, which is associated with the highest rates of injury and mortality when fish are struck by hydropower turbine blades, including rainbow trout (EPRI, 2008;Amaral et al, 2020;Saylor et al, 2020). The mold was then securely closed and kept in an upright position to cast the mold.…”

Section: Gelfish Model Preparation and Testingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Impacts from turbine blade runners are one of the most injurious stressors and laboratory tests on live fish suggest it may cause organ damage, skeletal fractures, amputation, and death Saylor et al, 2020). Rates of injury and death are highest with thinner blades, higher impact velocities, and when struck on the lateral surface near the center of gravity of a fish (Turnpenny et al, 1992;EPRI , 2008;Amaral et al, 2020). Dose-response relationships generated from these laboratory trials are an important resource for designing more fish-friendly turbines; however, these data are limited in scope to just a few fish species exposed to what is presumed to be the worst-case impact scenarios.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Creation of a prototype biomimetic fish to better understand impact trauma caused by hydropower turbine blade strikes

Saylor

Wang

Bevelhimer

et al. 2021

PeerJ Materials Science

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Biomimetic model organisms could be useful surrogates for live animals in many applications if the models have sufficient biofidelity. One such application is for use in field and laboratory tests of fish mortality associated with passage through hydropower turbines. Laboratory trials suggest that blade strikes are especially injurious and often causes mortality when fish are struck by thinner blades moving at higher velocities. Dose-response relationships have been created from these data, but the exact relationship between fish mortality and the actual forces enacted on fish during simulated blade strike testing remains unknown. Here, we describe the methods used to create a prototype biomimetic model fish composed of ballistic gelatin and covered with a surrogate skin to better approximate the biomechanical properties of a fish body. Frozen fish were scanned with high-fidelity laser scanners, and a 3D-printed, reusable mold was created from which to cast our gelatin model. Computed tomography scan data, imaged directly or taken from online data repositories, were also successfully used to create CAD models for use in additive manufacturing of molds. One 3-axis accelerometer was embedded into the gelatin to compare accelerometer data to dose-response data from previous laboratory research on live fish. The resulting model (i.e., Gelfish) had a statistically indistinguishable tissue durometer to that of real fish tissue and preliminary blade strike impact testing suggested its overall flexibility was similar to that of live fish. Gelfish was designed with biofidelity as its guiding principle and our results suggest initial experimentation was successful. Future research will include replication of initial Gelfish test results, quantitative measurement of model flexibility relative to real fish, and inclusion of surrogate skeletal structures to enhance biofidelity. Use of more sophisticated sensors would also better quantify the physical forces of blade strike impact and help determine how said forces correlate with rates of mortality observed during tests on live fish.

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“…where the operculum would be on a real fish. This location represents the mid-body area, which is associated with the highest rates of injury and mortality when fish are struck by hydropower turbine blades, including rainbow trout (EPRI, 2008;Amaral et al, 2020;Saylor et al, 2020). The mold was then securely closed and kept in an upright position to cast the mold.…”

Section: Gelfish Model Preparation and Testingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Peer Review #1 of "Creation of a prototype biomimetic fish to better understand impact trauma caused by hydropower turbine blade strikes (v0.1)"

2021

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Improving survival: injury and mortality of fish struck by blades with slanted, blunt leading edges

Cited by 26 publications

References 7 publications

2020 Cost Analysis of Hydropower Options at Non-Powered Dams

2020 Cost Analysis of Hydropower Options at Non-Powered Dams

Creation of a prototype biomimetic fish to better understand impact trauma caused by hydropower turbine blade strikes

Peer Review #1 of "Creation of a prototype biomimetic fish to better understand impact trauma caused by hydropower turbine blade strikes (v0.1)"

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