The understanding of the relation between juvenile salmon behavior and flow conditions is of paramount importance to design fish bypass systems. The combined analysis of measured swim paths and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations can provide that understanding. This paper presents the development and application of a mechanistic model tailored to simulate swimming patterns of downstream migrants in forebays of dams. The model simulates different swimming behavior for Chinook, Sockeye, and Steelhead. Movements of fish are simulated using a two-tier approach. First, fish decisions are based on probability distributions which are developed from correlating measured swim paths and CFD results. Second, the movement of fish is simulated by solving Newton’s second law. Swim paths for Chinook were measured at Rocky Reach Dam and for Sockeye and Steelhead at Priest Rapids Dam. The numerical model was tested for the three species at Priest Rapids Dam. Results show that the model is capable of predicting fish forebay residence times, on average, within 20% of relative error. Predictions of final migration route are on average within 12% of measured values. The methodology presented in this paper has the potential to allow the application of knowledge gained from hydroacoustic studies developed in one dam to a different dam.
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