Water Power
Hydropower continues to serve as an important source of renewable energy. SAFL has a long legacy of hydropower research, with SAFL's original director, Lorenz Straub, serving to test and inform the design of hydroelectric projects around the globe. Today, SAFL hydropower research looks to not only inform more environmentally friendly hydropower practices, including both traditional dam designs and the testing and incorporation of hydrokinetic turbines, but also has worked on assessing the impacts of dam removal projects.
Affiliated Faculty
Roger Arndt
Michele Guala
John Gulliver
Lian Shen
SAFL Researchers
Matthew Lueker
Jeffrey Marr
Read about SAFL research projects with this topic (filter "Hydropower Projects" if needed):
Broadway Pump Station Physical Model
Posted
After a 2011 flood caused extensive damage in Minot, North Dakota, MWH Americas, Inc. was hired to design a pumping station as part of the Mouse River Enhanced Flood Protection Plan, to pump stormwater over the river levee during flood events. The applied engineering team at the St. Anthony Falls Laboratory was then tasked to build a physical model of the proposed pumping station to identify and mitigate unanticipated/unacceptable flow patterns prior to construction.
Long-throated U-flume study
Posted
SAFL researchers built a scale model of a round-bottomed long-throated flume, in order to validate Winflume software for this specific flume geometry.