June 30, 2026 — Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has been selected by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Hydropower Testing Network (HyTN) as a testing provider to help the industry develop and demonstrate new technologies.
Hydropower is electricity generated using the elevation difference created by a dam or diversion structure. The HyTN links hydropower developers with testing facilities and experts across the country. SwRI’s selection allows these organizations to benefit from its wide range of technical services to help develop and improve hydropower technologies.
“Hydropower is where clean energy, grid reliability, and long-lasting infrastructure come together,” said Jacqueline Manders, Program Manager of SwRI’s Fluids Engineering Department. “Our teams blend advanced modeling, full-scale testing, and real-world field work to tackle some of the toughest challenges in the industry. Now, as a HyTN provider, we’re ready to use that expertise and our facilities to help move the future of hydropower forward.” As a HyTN testing capability provider, SwRI’s hydropower capabilities include:
- Customized, high-fidelity testing of hydropower components such as turbines, gates, surge tanks, storage systems, and pumps under realistic flow, pressure, and transient operating conditions in SwRI’s Flow Component Testing Facilities.
- Mechanical spin testing on hydropower turbines to verify the mechanical design and performance of the impeller, shaft, seals, and bearings, allowing SwRI to measure vibration, temperature behavior, and dynamic stability while the turbine is rotating.
- Comprehensive materials testing and characterization to understand a component’s safe service life and provide recommendations for life and integrity extension. SwRI measures how material properties change under realistic conditions to set appropriate inspection timelines and safe operating conditions.
- Advanced computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling and simulation that can analyze complex hydraulic and multi-physics flow phenomena in hydropower systems and related infrastructure.
- CFD analyses tailored specifically to the hydropower turbine that simulate complex flow characteristics to produce comprehensive performance predictions, flow visualizations, and design optimization recommendations.
- Turbine mechanical design studies, which can include finite element analysis (FEA) on key turbine parts to predict stress, strain, vibration effects, and/or rotordynamic simulations of the turbine shaft assembly to predict mechanical modes and vibration behaviors.
- Hydropower roadmapping, energy analysis, and techno-economic evaluations using SwRI’s grid and microgrid modeling tools to assess hydropower system performance, technically and financially.
- Root cause failure analysis (RCFA) to identify failure mechanisms on components or systems at hydropower plants, recommend remediation, and provide recommendations to prevent recurrence.
- Hydropower digital twin creation and analysis, an advanced modeling framework tailored to the hydropower technology, employs physics-based simulations grounded in data to ensure model accuracy to provide performance estimations over the range of real-world operating conditions and energy demand profiles.
The testing, modeling, and analysis capabilities selected by the DOE HyTN program leverage the core competencies and extensive test facility infrastructure across SwRI’s Fluids Engineering, Machinery, and Materials Engineering departments. These departments specialize in applied research and development to optimize the efficiency, reliability, and performance of industrial systems across the energy sector.
For more information, visit Fluids Engineering, Materials Engineering, or Machinery or contact Joanna Quintanilla, +1 210 522 2073, Communications Department, Southwest Research Institute, 6220 Culebra Road, San Antonio, TX 78238-5166.