💧 Monitoring of hydropower plant operations with fiber optics and DAS technology using the FEBUS A1. 💧
👉 Every start, stop and load change in hydropower plants generates flow and pressure transients in the waterway (headrace tunnel and penstock).
👉 As water is an elastic medium, the shutdown of powerhouse valves leads to a fast-travelling water hammer in the penstock, that is then reduced and controlled with a surge tank.
👉 However, the closure of the valves will create a pressure transient with a long time period in the headrace tunnel called mass oscillations. This mass oscillation oscillate back and forth until the energy is dissipated by friction.
In case of emergency shutdown of the valves, our technology can monitor these pressure variations. These ones can lead to:
⚠ induce failures on monitoring cables in the tunnel
⚠ create leakages on the tunnel wall