Fish detect turbulence in the water around them; among other things, this helps them avoid colliding with objects. Here, researchers are looking to understand how fish interact with underwater turbines. Experiments give them a set of trajectories that actual fish follow when dealing with the experimental turbine. But to understand what the fish is detecting, the researchers build a digital facsimile of the turbine and use Large Eddy Simulation (LES) to calculate the turbine’s wake.
By overlaying the fish trajectories onto the simulated flow structures, they can better understand what flows the fish is and is not comfortable with. That knowledge helps engineers design turbines with smaller ecological impact. (Video and image credit: H. Seyedzadeh et al.)
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