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FishSafe™️ design & feasibility studies
Natel develops detailed hydraulic designs to install new and upgrade existing hydropower plants with high-performance, FishSafe™ turbine runners. Our designs preserve or enhance turbine performance, ensure effective fish passage, and support environmental compliance. We offer:
- Hydraulic modeling to meet desired cavitation and efficiency targets at rated and part flow
- Fish passage survival estimates based on proprietary simulation tools and experimental data
- Barotrauma risk assessment
- Analysis of how FishSafe™ runners integrate with or compare to alternative mitigations
- Consultation & stakeholder engagement support
- Grant application assistance
Our process begins with understanding client goals, followed by developing and analyzing preliminary designs, collaborating with clients to discuss findings, and delivering a concise report summarizing results and recommendations. Initial feasibility studies can be completed in 4-6 months.
Design execution
After assessing runner manufacturability in an initial feasibility study, we work with our OEM partners to finalize all perspectives of turbine hydraulic design including design for manufacturing, operation, maintenance, etc.
Scale-model performance & fish passage testing
We also provide scale-model performance and fish passage testing to compliment our CFD modeling and analysis. Our unique test laboratory in California consists of a 20,000 gallon recirculating system with two branches, one of which is used for fish passage testing and the other of which is used for performance testing. Our system can deliver up 1 cms (35 cfs) of flow and simulate up to 32 m (105 ft) of net head. We offer:
- Scale-model tests to validate hydraulic and cavitation performance and loads, according to the IEC 60193 standard, with 0.2% to 0.5% total uncertainty on hydraulic efficiency
- Fish passage testing with a variety of species of interest at representative relative size, using site-specific runner characteristics and strike speed
- Full-scale hydraulic and fish passage performance analyses that combine physical results with estimations from proprietary analytical and CFD strike survival tools
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Project commissioning
We work with our manufacturing partners to support commissioning by participating in the confirmation of compliance with design specifications and confirmation of hydraulic performance. We will also support any required validation tests of fish passage performance.
