Air injection in a water flow

Oxygen level in rivers downstream hydraulic dams has been an rising environmental issue. During certain times of the year, the dissolved oxygen in the downstream river can decrease to lethal levels for fish for a few kilometers.

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To tackle this ecological issue, General Electric partnered with Polytechnique Montréal to study the injection of air into a water flow. With Stéphane Étienne, Cédric Beguin and Ariane Benoit, we designed and fabricated an air injection system in a hydrodynamic tunnel. In this two-phase flow set-up, we were able to measure the void fraction in situ.