Influence of pump noise on the health of fish in a large pumping station

The axial flow pump, characteristic of a large flow, is widely used in pumping stations of hydraulic engineering. However, the internal noise of the axial-flow pump of a high sound pressure level is notable, with a great influence on the fishing livelihood. At present, the studies of the impact of the noise on fish are mainly focused on the explosion, the offshore wind power plant, the ship and other fields, with little attention on the noise generated by the pumping station. This paper applies the combination of the computational fluid dynamics and the Actran to study the sound pressure level distribution in the high-noise area inside the axial-flow pump and the noise distribution in the downstream areas of the pumping station. Extensive comparisons are made of the hearing threshold and the hearing damage threshold of fish, and it is revealed that the noise inside the axial-flow pump exceeds the hearing damage threshold of fish, which could lead to the hearing damage of over-pumped fish. Further, the noises emitted from the pumping station to the downstream are beyond the fish hearing threshold and will also have a significant impact on the fish around the pumping station. This study can provide a reference for studying the impact of the noise generated by various large-scale water transfer projects on fish.