Notice of Intent to Award to the University of Iowa for Integrated Bubble, Sound and Light Modeling for Modeling Fish Deterrence

Over the next three years, the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers (USACE) and the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) are developing a method to determine the deterrence efficiency of a non-physical barrier (NPB) located on river bifurcations in California. Modeling of a bubbleplume curtain, sound, and modulated intense light (MIL) with the NPB placed at the opening of one arm of the riverine bifurcation is necessary to predict fish deterrence efficiency before NPB deployment or adjustment. An Individual Based Model (IBM) is being proposed to model fish deterrence. The IBM will need hydraulics from a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model of river hydraulics near the NPB. The CFD model will need the bubble, sound, and light submodels (encapsulated sound and reflected light due to a bubble curtain). Background sound due to bed sediment movement at high flows (rolling gravel) and background light due to changing daylight level (or city lights at night), turbidity, and other variables may be inputs. Sound, background sound, MIL, and ambient light needs to be represented at each node of the CFD model mesh. This research cooperative agreement calls for the development of bubble, sound, and light equations and related numerical modules that can be integrated and embedded within a CFD hydraulic model of rivers. Specifically, the proposed research cooperative agreement would be to develop bubble, sound, and light governing equations for insertion into an integrated framework (IFW) for a CFD hydraulic model coupled to a Individual Based Model (IBM) of a fish and a Eulerian Lagragian Agent Method (ELAM) of streamflow for predicting deterrence efficiency of juvenile Chinook salmon at a non-physical barrier (NPB) at the Head of Old River (HOR) and Georgianna Slough (GS) of the San Joaquin River Basin.