Fish friendly hydraulic turbine distributor

Abstract

A hydraulic turbine has a distributor located between the scroll of the turbine and its runner. The distributor has upper and lower stay ring portions with stay vanes extending therebetween. A plurality of movable wicket gates control flow of liquid through the distributor. The lower and upper stay ring portions have built up fish friendly projections adjacent sweep areas defined where the wicket gates sweep across the lower and upper stay ring portions. The projections also extend outwardly of the upper and lower stay ring portions adjacent the sweep areas and act as barriers preventing fish from being trapped between the wicket gates and the stay ring. Each projection has a sill portion projecting outwardly at least coextensive with, and adjacent to, one sweep area and a first apron portion extending from the sill portion to an appropriate one of the upper and lower stay ring portions.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.