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Ice Harbor Dam, located on the Snake River near Burbank, Washington.
How Voith Hydro Designed Improved-FishPassage Turbines for Ice Harbor Dam
O
ver the past few years, Voith Hydro has worked with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to design and install several turbines for improved fish passage at the Army Corps’ Ice Harbor Dam, located on the Snake River near Burbank, Washington. In this interview, we speak with Brian Van Baush and Jason Foust of Voith Hydro about what makes a turbine better for fish passage; what the Army Corps was looking for at Ice Harbor; and how Voith worked to design, test, and install the units at the dam. Hydro Leader: Please tell us about your backgrounds and how you came to be in your current positions. Brian Van Baush: I work in Voith Hydro’s business development group and have been with Voith for just over 5 years. I’ve been involved with power generation for roughly 25 years. I went to the Naval Academy, and when I left the navy, I went to work in the paper industry; then moved over to General Electric’s industrial group, which supported hydro; and now work at Voith.
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Brian Van Baush: Voith Hydro has been in the power generation hydro business for 155 years, and through our acquired companies, Voith has been in North America for 145 years. We have grown over that time period through internal development and the acquisition of other hydropower equipment manufacturers, such as S. Morgan Smith and Allis Chalmers. We design and manufacture Kaplan, Francis, Pelton, and pump turbines. We are also deeply involved in small hydro projects, ranging from 1 to 15 megawatts. We have even developed the Streamdiver, which is a completely encased unit with a capacity of less than 1 megawatt that you can put into a canal. Hydro Leader: Would you introduce the concept of improved fish passage with reference to turbines? What are the factors that make a turbine better or worse for fish passage? Does this conversation primarily concern the passage through the turbine itself, or are we talking about other factors, such as dissolved oxygen? Brian Van Baush: Our improved-fish-passage turbine project was developed with the Army Corps over several years. Specifically, we are trying to ensure that fish can pass through the turbine without damage. Jason Foust: Fish passage is related to how a fish responds to a flow environment. This varies by species, so the main drivers are documented and studied by biologists, and we implement hydroleadermagazine.com
PHOTOS BY THE U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS, PUBLIC DOMAIN.
Jason Foust: I started at Voith 15 years ago. I work in hydraulic engineering in the contract execution phase for projects. Once a contract is awarded, I’m responsible for the definition of the hydraulic shapes for the runner and the various hydraulic components that are being modified or replaced. That involves a lot of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling and model testing. In addition to those normal hydraulic engineering tasks, I’m also heavily involved with environmental technologies for aeration and fish passage.
Hydro Leader: Please introduce Voith Hydro and the range of turbines it manufactures.
