A realistic aquaculture fish farm system in both regular and irregular waves is investigated by numerical simulations and model tests. The main purpose is to develop a reliable numerical tool and in this respect to investigate the survival conditions of the system. The structural and hydrodynamic modelings of the system are briefly introduced. Numerical sensitivity analysis is performed to investigate which physical parameters are dominant when modeling the system.The considered fish farm comprises a floating collar with two concentric tubes, a flexible net cage including a cylindrical part and a conical part with a center point weight at the bottom, and a sinker tube attached directly to the net. The system is moored with a complex mooring system with bridle lines, frame lines and anchor lines, supported by buoys.The mooring loads in the front two anchor lines and bridle lines are investigated in detail. Numerical results are first validated by the experimental data. Both numerical and experimental results show that one of the bridle lines experiences larger load than the rest of the mooring lines, which is surprising. Then a sensitivity analysis is carried out. The mooring loads are not sensitive to the majority of the parameters. The flow reduction factor in the rear part of the net is the most important parameter for the anchor loads. Modeling the floating collar as a rigid body has a small effect on the anchor loads but not for the bridle lines as it will alter the force distribution between bridles. The mooring loads are not sensitive to the wave load model for the floating collar in both regular and irregular seas and modeling the floating collar as elastic with zero frequency hydrodynamic coefficients is enough to give reliable results.Finally, the survival conditions of the fish farms with different set-ups is studied. Numerical results indicate that the dominant limitation to move the conventional fish farms to more exposed sea regions is the large volume reduction of the net cage. The existing mooring system can be applied in offshore regions as long as the bridle lines are properly designed. The maximum stress in the floating collar is moderate compared with the yield stress.

Dynamic response of a well boat operating at a fish farm in current is investigated numerically. An objective is to determine the operational conditions of the well boat. In terms of the fish farm, a realistic set-up (with single cage) is considered, including a floating collar, an elastic sinker tube, a flexible-closed net cage and a complex mooring system. A time-domain solution is used to find the steady configuration and response. Transverse viscous current loads are estimated using the cross-flow principle. The drag coefficients are obtained empirically by considering cross-sectional details, free surface and three-dimensional (3D) flow effects. The drag force is experimentally validated. The effect of the ship wake on the net loading is also assessed.The most critical scenario with the well boat placed at the weather side of the fish farm is analyzed in detail. Critical response variables for operational limits are the maximum anchor-line tensions and floater stresses. Numerical results show that the anchor loads will increase more than 40% in small current velocities and up to 90% in high current velocities due to the viscous current loads on the boat. There is also a strong increase of the floating collar deformations and stresses when the well boat is in contact with the floating collar.A sensitivity analysis has been carried out to identify the physical parameters affecting the anchor loads and the maximum stress in the floating collar. From our studies, the anchor loads are more sensitive to current direction, bottom weight system, sinker tube depth and mooring line properties (pretension load, anchor chain weight, etc.) and less sensitive to other parameters such as floating collar stiffness and crosssectional drag coefficients of the well boat. The shading effect of the well boat on the fish-farm inflow has been examined and appeared not negligible with 4% to 10% reduction of the anchor loads for the studied current conditions. The maximum stress in the floating collar is sensitive to well-boat loads related parameters (current direction, cross-sectional drag coefficient) and pretension load in the anchor line; not so sensitive to net loading related parameters such as sinker tube depth and sinker tube weight.Lastly, the operational conditions of the well boat at the fish farm were discussed. Numerical results show that the maximum stresses in the floating collar should be of major concern. The loads in the mooring lines are moderate compared with the corresponding breaking limits.

The paper is partly a review on hydrodynamic and structural aspects of fish farms. In addition, new numerical results are presented on the stochastic behavior of bending stresses in the floater of a realistic net cage in extreme wave conditions. The behavior of traditional-type fish farms with net cages and closed fish farms in waves and currents is discussed. Hydroelasticity can play a significant role for net cages and closed membrane-type fish farms. The many meshes in a net cage make CFD and complete structural modeling impracticable. As an example, a hydrodynamic screen model and structural truss elements are instead used to represent the hydrodynamic loading and the structural deformation of the net. In addition, the wake inside the net due to current plays an important role. The described simplified numerical method has been validated by comparing with model tests of mooring loads on a single net cage with two circular elastic floaters and bottom weight ring in waves and currents. It is discussed which parts of the complete system play the most important roles in accurately determining the mooring loads. Many realizations of a sea state are needed to obtain reliable estimates of extreme values in a stochastic sea. In reality, many net cages operate in close vicinity, which raises questions about spatial variations of the current and wave environment as well as hydrodynamic interaction between the net cages. Live fish touching the netting can have a non-negligible influence on the mooring loads. It is demonstrated by numerical calculations in waves and currents that a well boat at a net cage can have a significant influence on the mooring loads and the bending stresses in the floater. The latter results provide a rational way to obtain operational limits for a well boat at a fish farm. Sloshing has to be accounted for in describing the behavior of a closed fish farm when important wave frequencies are in the vicinity of natural sloshing frequencies. The structural flexibility has to be considered in determining the natural sloshing frequencies for a membrane-type closed fish farm. Free-surface non-linearities can matter for sloshing and can, for instance, result in swirling in a certain frequency domain for a closed cage with a vertical symmetry axis.

Ship collisions and groundings are highly nonlinear and transient, coupled dynamic processes involving large structural deformations and fluid structure interactions. It has long been difficult to include all effects in one simulation. By taking advantage of the user defined load subroutine and the user common subroutine, this paper implements a model of hydrodynamic loads based on linear potential-flow theory into the nonlinear finite element code LS-DYNA, facilitating a fully coupled six degrees of freedom (6DOF) dynamic simulation of ship collision and grounding accidents. Potential-flow theory both with and without considering the forward speed effect is implemented for studying the speed influence. With the proposed model, transient effects of the fluid, global ship motions, impact forces and structural damage can all be predicted with high accuracy. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first time the fully coupled 6DOF collision and grounding simulations are carried out with linear hydrodynamic loads for transient conditions but without simplification of collision forces.The proposed method is applied to calculations of an offshore supply vessel colliding with a rigid plate and with a submersible platform. The results are compared with a decoupled method and discussed with emphasis on the influence of different initial velocities. The proposed method is capable of predicting both the 6DOF ship motions and structural damage simultaneously with good efficiency and accuracy; hence, it will be a very promising tool in the application to ship collision and grounding analysis.

The dynamic response of a coupled well boat-fish farm system in irregular long-crested waves and current is analyzed numerically in the time domain. The main purpose is to investigate the influence of the well boat on the fish farm and then to determine the operational conditions of the well boat.The numerical study of slow-drift sway motion of the well boat is performed at first. Hydrodynamic and statistical theories are briefly introduced. The cross-flow principle is assumed valid for evaluating the transverse viscous loads and the needed cross-sectional drag coefficients are estimated empirically and validated against available experiments. The mean value and standard deviation of the slow-drift motion from time domain agree well with those from frequency domain when equivalent linearized drag damping is incorporated.The coupled system with the well boat placed at the weather side of the fish farm is then analyzed in detail. Special attention is paid to two critical response variables, i.e., maximum anchor-line loads and maximum floating collar stresses. Numerical results show that the examined two variables will increase more than 300% due to the well boat in moderate exposure sea states. A sensitivity analysis is also carried out to identify the important parameters influencing these two response variables.Cross-sectional drag coefficients for the well boat and fish-farm related parameters (pretension load in the anchor lines and anchor-line stiffness) have moderate influence on the two variables. Simplifying the modeling of the coupled system, for instance neglecting the net cage and the first-order motion, has more effect on the maximum anchor load than on the maximum floating-collar stress and reduced sensitivity is observed in current, especially for the latter variable.Lastly, the operational conditions of the well boat are determined through systematic simulations.Numerical results show that the maximum loads in the mooring lines are moderate compared with the corresponding breaking limits even in high exposure sea states, while for the maximum stress in the floating collar can be close to the yield stress when operating in moderate exposure regions.