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):
Evaluating the effectiveness of pretreatment practices for rain gardens
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The purpose of this project was to evaluate the effectiveness of different pretreatment devices in Minnesota. The objective was to gather quantitative data using a common method that will allow for comparisons across devices.
Evaluating permeable pavement as an alternative to road salt application
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The Minnesota Department of Transportation tasked SAFL researchers with evaluating the use of unsalted permeable pavement in comparison to traditional impermeable salted pavement. Permeable pavement refers to a surface where water can infiltrate into pavement and ultimately become groundwater, rather than running off pavement into the stormwater system.
Broadway Pump Station Physical Model
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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
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SAFL researchers built a scale model of a round-bottomed long-throated flume, in order to validate Winflume software for this specific flume geometry.