Aquacultural Engineering 35 (2006) 258–270

www.elsevier.com/locate/aqua-online

Dynamical analysis of net cage structures for marine aquaculture:

Numerical simulation and model testing
Chai-Cheng Huang a,*, Hung-Jie Tang a, Jin-Yuan Liu b
a
Department of Marine Environment and Engineering, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung 804, Taiwan
b
Institute of Undersea Technology and Asian Pacific Ocean Research Center,
National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung 804, Taiwan
Received 15 November 2005; accepted 15 March 2006

Abstract
A numerical model for analyzing dynamic properties of a net-cage system exposed in the open sea is proposed. The model is
based on a lumped-mass method. In this model, the mooring lines are divided into linear elements and the net cage divided into
several plane surface elements. The interconnected points or corners are called nodes or lumped-mass centers. The external force is
calculated on each element and then equally distributed to its nodes. By adding the contributed forces from the neighboring
elements, a system of motion equations for nodes is formed. The volume reduction coefficient of a net cage is estimated by the ratio
of minimum volume of net cage during fluid and structure interaction to the original volume. In general, the numerical results are in
good agreements with the experimental data. However, the results also show that if the Reynolds number is lower than the suggested
range of 1400–1800, the numerical model may underestimate the environmental forces on a net-cage system.
# 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Cage aquaculture; Hydrodynamic forces; Volume reduction coefficient

1. Introduction the durability of the present marine aquaculture

Due to diminishing fishery resources in the ocean and
land subsidence in the coastal zone caused by over
pumping of groundwater for land-based fisheries, marine
cage aquaculture has become an alternative for future
development of the fisheries industry in Taiwan.
Furthermore, other environmental factors, such as
nearshore pollution and aesthetic preservation for local
communities have pushed marine farming sites further
offshore. Unfortunately, prevailing typhoons each year
have caused serious problems in the integrity of cage
structures. Most fish farmers have great concerns about
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +886 7 525 5169;
fax: +886 7 525 5060.
E-mail address: cchuang@mail.nsvsu.edu.tw (C.-C. Huang).
structures in resisting the impact of storm waves and
currents during typhoon events. Thus, the dynamic
behavior of a net-cage system, as shown schematically
in Fig. 1, has become a very important subject of
investigation.
Current status of research on the marine net-cage
system has indicated that the advancement in the
dynamical analysis on the flexible nets and mooring
lines still needs to be further developed, in order to be
able to better predict the dynamic performance and
reliability of such structures. Kawakami (1964) has
proposed relatively reliable semi-empirical formulas for
a flexible net subject to the effect of currents. The
formulation includes the drag force caused by the
material properties, mesh size of net, and current
velocity. Milne (1972) and Woods Hole Engineering
Associates (1984) have proposed a series of drag

0144-8609/$ – see front matter # 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.aquaeng.2006.03.003
 C.-C. Huang et al. / Aquacultural Engineering 35 (2006) 258–270
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of a net-cage system.
coefficients for various materials in fouled or unfouled
conditions. Aarsens et al. (1990) and Loland (1991)
have further separated the external forces into drag and
lift forces, taking into account the angle between current
velocity and the normal direction of net panel. They
have also included the shadow effect (or shielding
effect) in calculating the total force on a cage system.
These works have laid a good foundation for the
estimation of the external forces on an offshore net-cage
system. Lader et al. (2003) and Lader and Enerhaug
(2005) have conducted a series of experiments
investigating forces and deformation on a net cage in
a uniform current. They concluded that the total force
on a flexible net cage and its deformation are mutually
dependent on each other, since different areas in the net
structure have different effective angles of attack, and
the effective solidity may be altered due to the
deformation of the net cage. They also estimate the
discrepancy of global forces on a flexible net structure
using complicated drag formulas derived from stiff net
panel experiments when compared with experimental
measurements. This leads to a numerical model called
‘‘super-element method’’, which can be used to predict
the global forces on a flexible net sheet. Tsukrov et al.
(2003) applied a ‘‘finite element method with consistent
net element concepts’’ in modeling the dynamical
behavior of a tension leg fish cage (TLC ‘‘Refa 1800’’)
and the simulations show that 21 special net elements
per net panel is enough to adequately represent the
influence of the net on the overall dynamic character-
istics of the considered fish cage system. In Tsukro et al.
(2005), the numerical model was improved upon by the
addition of nonlinear elastic elements, such as ropes,
rubber tethers, and feed hoses. Fredriksson et al. (2003)
adopted not only the finite element method but also a
stochastic approach to analyze the motion response
characteristics of an in situ fish cage and the mooring
line tension response to wave forces. The results
provided valuable information concerning dynamical
259
processes of the fish cage under environmental forces.
Further studies are suggested including fluid-net panel
interaction, transfer function amplitude dependence,
and the effect on system geometry and therefore
response, etc. Suhey et al. (2005) have worked on the
cage structure numerical modeling using finite element
method and proved that the inflated structure has
sufficient stiffness to be used as the structure support
within a fish cage. DeCew et al. (2005) perform and an
extensive set of experiments in a wave tank using
regular and random waves to investigate the dynamic
response of a modified gravity cage system. Frequency
analysis was performed. Normalized comparisons of
motion and loads were made with results using the
Aqua-FE numerical model described in Tsukrov et al.
(1999, 2005). The results of RAOs exhibited no
resonant condition peaks within the wave excitation
range (0.05–0.45 Hz) and conclude that the kind of fish
cage is a highly damped system, which is favorable for
the open sea farming sites.
The global demand for fishery product is still
increasing, and this trend will push fish cages further
towards the open sea. In view of the non-sheltered
nature of the offshore marine sites, there remains plenty
of room to improve the engineering analysis in terms of
structure design, performance, and reliability of
aquaculture cage systems. This paper focuses on the
dynamic analysis of net cages based on the ‘‘lumped-
mass method and net plane element’’ concepts. The
advantages of this concept are the whole net-cage
system can be decomposed into flexible net plane
elements, line elements, bottom weights, and rigid solid
body, such as floating collar which may be divided into
several straight tube elements. All elements are
subjected to external forces that then evenly distribute
to the corresponding nodes. These nodes or lumped-
mass centers form a system of uncoupled motion
equations, which is ready to be solved by the Runge–
Kutta method. Huang et al. (2006) applies the same
260 C.-C. Huang et al. / Aquacultural Engineering 35 (2006) 258–270
numerical model to a full scale fish cage of a single-
point-mooring system deployed in the open sea of
Taiwan, where the cable tension has been investigated
and shown a reasonable agreement with predictions.
The present study is carried out both by the numerical
simulations as well as model testing, in assurance of the
correctness of the analysis.
This paper is structured as follows. Section 2 reviews
external forces on moving objects, such as a flexible net
and a floating collar. Section 3 mentions the flow chart
of the numerical simulation and its accuracy criteria.
Section 4 describes the present numerical model
validated by physical model tests. Section 5 is results
and discussions which include two parts: one is the
numerical comparison between present method and the
results published by other authors; the other is
comparing with physical model conducted in a wave/
current tank in this university. Finally, in Section 6
conclusions and suggestions are presented.
2. External forces on net and floating collar
2.1. External forces review
The fundamental equation of motion is based on the
modified Morison equation which is generally
employed to describe the marine environmental forces
on a submerged object (Brebbia and Walker, 1979).
Since each component of the cage structure is relatively
small compared with the wave length, it is reasonable to
assume that the flow velocity potential field is not
affected by the presence of the cage structure. There-
fore, for the purpose of preliminary planning and
design, it is appropriate to employ the following
modified Morison equation to calculate the external
forces, F on a moving object:
1 @VR @V
F ¼ rCD AVR jVR j þ r 8 KM þr8 (1)
2 @t @t
where r is the density of sea water, CD the drag
coefficient, KM the added mass coefficient, A projected
area, and 8 is the displaced volume of structure member.
It is to be noticed that VR defined as:
VR ¼ V
Ṙ (2)
which is water particle velocity V relative to structure
velocity Ṙ. The first term on the right-hand-side of
Eq. (1) is the drag force which is proportional to the
square of the relative velocity of the fluid and structure,
the second term describes the added mass that is
dependent upon the structure shape and the fluid accel-
eration relative to the structure, and the third term is the
inertia force representing the distortion of the stream-
lines, and is irrelevant to the motion of structure.
Substituting Eq. (2) into Eq. (1) yields:
1 @V @Ṙ
F ¼ rCD AVR jVR j þ r 8 CM
r 8 KM (3)
2 @t @t
where cM = 1 + KM is the inertia coefficient. By incor-
porating Newton’s second law, Eq. (3) may be
expressed as
@Ṙ 1 @V
ðm þ r 8 KM Þ ¼ rCD AVR jVR j þ r 8 CM (4)
@t 2 @t
which constitutes the fundamental equation of motion.
For convenience, the first and the second terms are
denoted by FD and FI, representing the drag force and
the inertial force, respectively. The term on the left hand
side is treated as a total mass including the fluid added
mass, which is accelerated with structure motion. How-
ever, to apply Eq. (4) to a general flexible net-cage
system, it should also include the buoyant force, FB, the
gravitational force, FW, and the tension force, FT. There-
fore, the general equation of motion that is suitable to
describe the motion of a flexible net-cage system
becomes:
@2 R
ðm þ r 8 KM Þ ¼ FD þ FI þ FB þ FW þ FT (5)
@t2
where the drag force and the inertial force are associated
with motion of the fluids, and are regarded as the
hydrodynamic forces.
In the analysis of a net-cage system, it is common to
separate the whole system into two sub-systems: one
for the flexible net, and the other for the floating collar.
The forces acting on each sub-system are discussed
below.
2.2. Forces on a flexible net
For a flexible net sub-system, all external forces in
Eq. (5) are important. Among these forces, the buoyant
*
force and gravitational force are given by FB ¼
rg 8
*
and FB ¼ mg , respectively. The rest of the forces,
including the drag force, inertial force, and tension
force, are briefly described below.
2.2.1. Drag force
Aarsens et al. (1990) and Loland (1991) have
investigated the hydrodynamic forces on a stiff net
panel in a stationary uniform flow with Reynolds
number in the range from 1400 to 1800. Although the
developed formulas are primarily for the case of a
 C.-C. Huang et al. / Aquacultural Engineering 35 (2006) 258–270
Fig. 2. Relation between a flexible net cage and fluid flow.
stiff net panel, they are adequate to estimate the
hydrodynamic forces on a net-cage system for
preliminary planning and design, therefore, they are
adopted here.
Fig. 2 shows an element j with nodes N1–N4.
Assuming a water particle at the center of an element is
moving into the net cage with a relative velocity VR to
the net panel. The drag force (the force parallel to the
fluid motion) and lift force (the force perpendicular to
the fluid motion) are given as follows:
1
FD j ¼ rw CD ðbÞAnet jVR j2 eVR
2 volume of the super net element j.
1
FL j ¼ pw CL ðbÞAnet jVR j2 eL
2 2.2.3. Tension force
where CD(b) and CL(b) are coefficients in relation to the
angle of b:
CD ðbÞ ¼ 0:04
þ ð0:04 þ 0:33Sn þ 6:54S2n
4:88S3n Þ cosðbÞ
CL ðbÞ ¼ ð
0:05Sn þ 2:3S2n
1:76S3n Þ sinð2bÞ
It is noted that b is the angle between the normal
vector of net element en (refer to Fig. 2 and Eq. (11));
Anet is the area of the plane element j formed by four
corner nodes N1–N4; the vector in flow relative velocity
direction eVR ¼ VR =jVR j. The parameter Sn is the
solidity ratio, which is defined as the ratio between the
261
area covered by the twines in the screen and the total
area of the screen:
2D
Sn ¼ (10)
l
in which D is the twine diameter and l is a half mesh
size. Other relevant parameters are defined below:
RN1 N2  RN2 N3
en ¼ (11)
jRN1 N2  RN2 N3 j
ðVR  en Þ  VR
eL ¼ (12)
jðVR  en Þ  VR j
where RN1 N2 and RN2 N3 are relative position vectors,
eL is the lift force unit vector for this specific plane
element. After entering the net cage, the fluid particle
velocity will retard a little bit. This phenomenon is
named as a shadowing effect and the velocity reduc-
tion coefficient 0.85 is adopted for the rear part of
nets.
2.2.2. Inertial force
The inertia force is usually expressed in terms of the
local acceleration of a fluid particle taken at the center
of a net element. It may be expressed as:
@V j
FI j ¼ rw 8 j CM (13)
@t
where CM is an unknown inertial coefficient, which
usually takes a value between one and two, with no
significant difference being found in this study. Here,
(6) CM is taken to be two in this analysis. 8j is the total
(7)
The twines of a flexible net are subjected to an
elasticity effect, when the external forces are applied.
According to field observations, a flexible net hung over
a floating collar is usually in a square shape, as shown in
Fig. 2. Thus, it is appropriate to assume the quasi spring
effect only occurs in the horizontal and vertical
(8) directions, and is exerted on the neighboring nodes
as shown in Fig. 3.
(9)
A quasi spring line(k) shown in Fig. 3 represents the
total mesh bars located in the width Bok, and its
elongation strength are equal to the sum of these single
mesh bars; in other words, the tension of a line is the
sum of each mesh bar’s tension within the width
covering two half elements on both sides as shown in
the right-hand-side of Fig. 3, The tension may be
262 C.-C. Huang et al. / Aquacultural Engineering 35 (2006) 258–270

Fig. 3. Quasi spring line and its associated flexible net plane.

expressed as: with lk defined as:

qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
FTk ¼
NLK s bk Abar if ek > 0
(14) lk ¼ ðXiþ1
Xi Þ2 þ ðYiþ1
Yi Þ2 þ ðZiþ1
Zi Þ2
0 if ek  0
(18)
where FTk is a quasi tension force in the line(k), sk the where lok is the undeformed length between two nodes, lk
stress of a single twine, ek the strain of single twine is the deformed length under external forces. The tension
under external forces, and NLk is the number of mesh forces at node i and its directions are expressed as:
bars in width Bok given by:
FTk ¼ FTk ek (19)
Bok
NLk ¼ (15) with the direction vector defined as:
l
Xiþ1
Xi Yiþ1
Yi Ziþ1
Zi
The stress sk may be expressed as: ek ¼ iþ jþ k (20)
lk lk lk
s k ¼ C1 eCk 2 (16) Similarly, the horizontal quasi spring lines are also
computed as the previous description. Thus a typical
where C1 and C2 are the elastic parameters of a twine. plane net element forms four quasi spring lines at its
C1 is determined by twine breaking strength test but edges, shown in Fig. 3.
C2 is usually set to one (see Table 1). Abar is the cross-
section area of a single twine.Also, the definition 2.3. Forces on the floating collar
of ek is:
Although the floating collar mainly comprises two
lk
lok tubes and a handrail, as shown in Fig. 1, in the numerical
ek ¼ (17)
lok model a simplified floating tube was considered at first

Table 1
Data of physical model
Floating collar Sinker collar Mooring line Fish net
Material Plastic Plastic Nylon twist Nylon
Circumference (cm) 162 162
Tube diameter (cm) 2 1.178 0.265
Twine diameter (cm) 0.02
Total mass (g) 596 226 34.776
Unit mass (g/cm) 0.03879
Material density (g/cm3) 0.95 0.95 1.14 1.14
Mesh size (cm) 0.46
Net depth (cm) 30
Breaking strength (g) 156730 3339
Elastic parameter C1 (g/cm2) 7680134 24717133
(Solidity = 0.17).
 C.-C. Huang et al. / Aquacultural Engineering 35 (2006) 258–270 263

Fig. 4. A segment of floating tube, top view (left) and side view (right).

in order to obtain a fundamental computational each value, it may vary with the floating condition and
methodology. The floating tube can be divided into computed as follows
several segments (or elements). If the number of 8
> Dj
segments is large enough then the segments can be >
> D j; Dh 
>
> 2
regarded as a linear straight pipe. Under this delicate >
> D D
>
< j þjDhj; 0  Dh  j
consideration, we may compute the external forces on 2 2
hj ¼ D Dj (23)
the pipe based on its floating position, see Fig. 4. >
> j
>
>
jDhj;
< Dh 0
>
> 2 2
>
> Dj
2.3.1. Drag force : 0; Dh 

According to Blevins (1984), the drag forces on a 2
circular cylinder can be decomposed into two parts, one 8
> Dj
> Dh 

is normal to the pipe and the other is tangential to the > pD j ;
>
> 2
pipe. The formulas for those two components may be >
>
> p D j þD u; 0  Dh  D j
<
shown in Eq. (21), and their corresponding drag j
Sj ¼ 2 2 (24)
coefficients are shown in Eq. (22), which is strongly >
> D j Dj
>
> p
D j u;
< Dh  0
associated with the flow’s attack angles a, >
> 2 2
>
> Dj
8 : 0; Dh 

> 1 2
< FD jn ¼ rw CDn An jVR j j2  en
2 (21)  
jDhj
: FD jt ¼ 1 rw CDt At jVR j j2  et
> u ¼ sin
1 (25)
2 D j =2


CDn ¼ 1:2 sin2 a
(22)
CDt ¼ 0:083 cosa
0:035 cos2 a
where An = hjlj and At = Sjlj. The detail computations
of the above geometric terms are shown in Fig. 5 and
Eqs. (23)–(25); lj is the length of a segment of tube.
For explanation, assuming a segment of tube parallel
to y-axis and the coordinates of the center of circular
tube are (Xp,Zp), Dh is the difference between the water
surface elevation and zp, Dj the diameter, Aj the
submerged area, Sj the wetted perimeter per unit length
of the tube, hj is the submerged height of the tube. For Fig. 5. Geometric explanation for the cross-section of floating collar.
264 C.-C. Huang et al. / Aquacultural Engineering 35 (2006) 258–270

2.3.2. Inertia force for that node i. All the nodes form a system of motion
The inertia force is similar to that of the net element, equations which are uncoupled to each other and ready
the fluid particle’s local acceleration which is computed to be solved by numerical methods. The fifth order
at the center of linear segment (element). Runge–Kutta method was chosen to solve the system of
equations in time domain with the computational
@V j
FI j ¼ rw 8 n CM (26) accuracy set by a tolerance level (e = 10
6). A computer
@t programming flow chart is shown in Fig. 6, where the
For the temporary estimation, CM was also set to 2. first step is to input the designated environmental
8j = Ajlj is the total volume of the element j, and Aj is the current conditions and the material data of the cage-net
cross-section area of the tube under water surface system; secondly, calling an automesh subprogram
calculated with Eq. (27). which not only creates net plane elements and nodes for
8 whole system but also generates their relationship;
>
> pD2j Dj
>
> ; Dh  thirdly, calculating the external forces on elements and
>
> 4 2
>
> then evenly distributing to the corresponding notes;
> pD2j D j
> D2j u Dj
< þ jDhjcosu þ ; 0  Dh  next, forming a system of motion equations and solving
Aj ¼ 8 2 4 2 it by the fifth order Runge–Kutta method; and next,
> pD2j D j
> D2j u Dj
>
>
jDhjcosu
;
<h  0 judging the estimated error, if it is larger than the
>
> 8 2 4 2
>
> desired accuracy then goes back and reduces the time
>
> Dj
: 0; Dh 
step, and then re-calculates the previous external forces
2 on the net elements, otherwise goes on to the next step;
(27) Finally, computing the rope tension and volume
Other force computations, such as buoyant force and reduction coefficient (discussed in Section 5.3). Repeat
gravitational force are quite clear. Therefore, no further the calculating procedures until it reaches the maximum
explanations are given. required time which is usually set to 120 s based on
experience.
3. Numerical simulations After solving the system of motion equations, we
may have the nodal points’ global coordinates,
The main concept is to divide the whole net cage velocities, and its accelerations in each time step.
structure into elements which are subjected to external Based on this nodal information, we obtain some
forces, and then evenly distribute the force to the important data about the rope maximum tension and the
corresponding nodes to form a system of motion corresponding volume reduction of the net cage.
equations. In Fig. 2, the total plane net elements can
be estimated by the multiplication of the number of 4. Physical model tests
horizontal sections, N, and the number of vertical
sections, M; i.e. N  M’s net elements. While the total The numerical model was also validated by a
number of nodes is estimated by N  (M + 1). As physical model test in a wave tank. The physical model
mentioned before, the node is also the center of the is composed of a floating collar, a cylinder net, and a
lumped mass. Its neighboring net elements are subjected sinker collar attached to the bottom of the net. The
to all kinds of external forces, such as hydrodynamic upper part of the net is mounted on the floating collar
forces (F D + F I), buoyant force (F B), and gravitational and tied together by several strings. A strain gage is
force (F W), which are equally distributed to the mounted on a vertical plate, which is welded to a fixed
corresponding notes. Only the tension forces (F T), are vertical thin bar. A mooring line is used to connect the
induced from the elongation of the quasi spring line net cage model and the fixed vertical bar. Once the
stretched in vertical or horizontal directions. In light of model is subjected to current forces, it will transmit the
these forces, each node i has a motion equation written as: tension forces to the strain gage and cause voltage
changes in a recorder. The experiment model is shown
@2 R i XNei
in Picture 1 and Fig. 7. Table 1 lists the data of the
ðm þ r 8 KMi Þ ¼ ðFD þ FI þ FB þ FW þ FT Þ j
@t2 j¼1
physical model of a net cage and its corresponding
material.
(28)
Experiments were conducted at the Hydrodynamics
The index j means the neighboring elements and Nei Laboratory in the Department of Marine Environment
means the maximum number of neighboring elements and Engineering, National Sun Yat-sen University,
C.-C. Huang et al. / Aquacultural Engineering 35 (2006) 258–270 265

Fig. 6. Flow chart for numerical simulation.

266 C.-C. Huang et al. / Aquacultural Engineering 35 (2006) 258–270
Picture 1. A model of net cage installed in the wave/current tank.
Taiwan. The wave tank with a piston type wave
generator and a circulation current pump in dimensions
35 m  1 m  1.2 m (L  W  H) could generate
waves and currents simultaneously, or separately. Thus
it is appropriate to test physical models of cage net
structures whose prototype may be installed in the open
sea. The model of the net cage is composed of a floating
collar, a cylinder net, and a tube sinker. This net cage
model is connected to a fixed vertical bar with a
mooring line 20 cm long. Two factors affected the
effective range of current speed on the model tests. One
factor is that at the beginning of each model test, the
mooring line is not in straight condition until the current
speed reaches 8 cm/s. It means the slack condition of
Fig. 7. Schematic diagram of a model of net cage tested in a wave/current tank.
mooring line may affect the result of test, thus the
current speed should be above 8 cm/s for each model
test. The other limit is from the current generator setting
limitation whose maximum current speed is 30 cm/s
with maximum fluctuation error 2 cm/s. To avoid the
influences of the slack mooring line or fluctuations in
the extreme current, the middle range of current speeds,
9–26 cm/s, are adopted in the physical model tests.
Table 1 lists the data of physical model of a net cage and
its corresponding material.
5. Results and discussions
5.1. Numerical verification
The first verification case was chosen from the work
done by Lader et al. (2003). The model is composed of
a hoop, a net, and a number of weights attached to
bottom of the net. The top of the net is mounted on the
hoop, which is kept in a fixed position during each test.
The weights are suspended around the bottom opening
of the net, in order to stretch the net and maintain its
shape under the influence of uniform current. The
hoop is made of stainless steel and has the following
dimensions: hoop diameter 1.435 m (center line to
center line) and rod diameter 0.025 m (diameter of the
cross-section of hoop). The net is made up of two
panels, which are joined together at the center line of
the cage. The netting material is nylon with a mass
 C.-C. Huang et al. / Aquacultural Engineering 35 (2006) 258–270 267

Fig. 8. The comparison of drag force of net cage (after Lader et al., 2003).

density of 1130 kg/m3. The netting is knotless with a slightly higher than the measures about 10% which
mesh size of 32 mm and twine thickness of 1.8 mm. should be considered minor error for such complicated
Mounted as square meshes, the solidity ratio, Sn, of the load cells arrangement and numerical simulations.
netting is 0.225. The net then forms an open vertical
cylinder with diameter 1.435 and height 1.435 m. 5.2. Physical model verification
Three sets of weights with nominal mass values of
400, 600 and 800 g are used in the tests. The weights If twine diameter is defined to be the characteristic
are made of steel and have cylindrical shapes. The dimension, the corresponding Reynolds number range
hoop with net was positioned in the center line of the is 20–50, which is much lower than the experimental
tank, approximately 0.9–1.0 m below the water sur- study carried out by Lader et al. (2003), Reynolds
face. The hoop was held in place with four pair of lines
to balance the forces from weights and hydrodynamic
loads. The equilibrium position of hoop and net was
achieved by minute adjustments of the length and
tension in each of the eight lines. Eight load cells using
strain gauge technology were used to measure the
strain in each line, and the global forces on the hoop
were calculated from these measurements. As for
numerical modeling, the vertical net cylinder was
divided into 16 elements around the circumference
and 4 elements over the height just as Lader did with
his model. The model was subjected to six different
current velocity cases and the results compared with
present method are shown in Fig. 8.
The results show a good agreement among present
model, Lader’s work and measured data, especially
when the velocity is below 0.32 m/s. When the current
velocity at 0.52 m/s, both present model and Lader’s Fig. 9. A sample of physical model test results, current velocity and
work are quite matched with each other, but both are its mooring line tension.
268 C.-C. Huang et al. / Aquacultural Engineering 35 (2006) 258–270
Fig. 10. The comparison between measurements and results of simu-
lations.
number range 260–530. Therefore, the drag and lift
coefficients found for Reynolds number 1400–1800,
Loland (1991), will under-estimate the current forces on
the net cage due to the viscosity effect. Besides, the
solidity ratio, Sn = 0.17, maintained constant in the
numerical simulation, even if the flexible net cage
deformed and folded up because of the fluid and
structure interactions, may arise a little computation
error. The results are shown in Figs. 9 and 10. The mean
relative error, R = measured
simulated/measured,
between measurements and simulations is about 20%.
However, the trends have shown relatively good
agreement in both experimental measurements and
simulation results.
Fig. 11. Cage-net volume divisions and its computing scheme.
5.3. Cage-net volume reduction coefficient
To compute the cage net deformation, it is
appropriate to consider the net pen as a cylindrical
cake. This cylindrical cake has M layers and N slices
from top to bottom, as shown in Fig. 11.
There are total M  N pieces of cake. A piece of cake
is extracted and divided into three tetrahedrons. We may
choose a point as origin and assign three vectors, such as
A, B, and C along the sides of the tetrahedron. Using the
principle of scalar triple product, A(B  C), we can
compute the approximate volume of the small cake.
1
Volume ¼ kA  ðB  CÞk
6
1
¼ ½a1 ðb2 c3
c2 b3 Þ þ a2 ðb3 c1
c3 b1 Þ
6
þ a3 ðb1 c2
c1 b2 Þ (29)
Summing up all of the tetrahedrons, an approximate
volume of the net pen is obtained. Its accuracy depends
on how small is the piece of cake. At very beginning
stage, the net shape is really like a cylindrical cake, but
after the currents passing, the net will deform and the
floating collar will tilt along with currents. Select the
smallest volume (Vmin) of net during current impact,
and then divided by the initial volume (V0), we will have
the volume reduction coefficient (Cvr) for this particular
current condition. Its mathematic form is written as
Vmin
Cvr ¼ (30)
V0
 C.-C. Huang et al. / Aquacultural Engineering 35 (2006) 258–270
Fig. 12. Net-cage volume reduction corresponding to current speed (note: the line image at the left top corner is not a towing line but a signal cable).
As for the net-cage volume reduction, it is difficult to
measure in the tank. Thus, the best way to show these
cage volume reductions is to take the stationary picture
for each trial, Fig. 12. These pictures may offer a way of
judgment for interested readers to estimate the
magnitude of the net-cage volume reduction coefficient
when comparing with the numerical simulations.
Fig. 13 is a result of numerical simulation, which has
Fig. 13. Net-cage volume reduction coefficient calculated by numer-
ical simulations.
269
indicated that the cage volume reduction coefficient
starts from almost 100% at low current speed to 45% at
current speed 26 cm/s.
6. Conclusions and suggestions
A numerical model for net cage is proposed. This
model takes into account not only the flexible net but
also the plastic collars subject to environmental forces.
All the structural components can be divided into
surface plane elements for cage net or line elements for
floating/sinker collars. These elements form a basic unit
to receive current forces, then the external forces evenly
distributes to its corner nodes. After solving a system of
motion equations for all nodes, we may obtain the
towing line tension force and net-cage volume reduction
coefficient at each time step.
The results show a good agreement among present
method, Lader’s simulations and experimental mea-
surements, especially when the velocities are below
0.32 m/s. But when the current velocity is 0.52 m/s,
both the present medel and Lader’s work are quite
matched with each other, but both are slightly higher
than the measurements about 10% which should be
considered minor error for such complicated load cells
arrangement and numerical simulations.
270 C.-C. Huang et al. / Aquacultural Engineering 35 (2006) 258–270
In the physical model test, the comparison of total
force has shown that the numerical simulations are
lower than the experimental data by about 20%. The
reasons for these errors may be attributed to the lower
Reynolds number, 20–50 in these model tests, while the
suggested net drag coefficients should be used in range
1400–1800. Lower Reynolds number means having
stronger fluid viscous effect on the net cage. Also, the
solidity ratio, maintained constant in the process of
numerical simulation, even if the flexible net deformed
and folded up during the interactions between fluid and
net cage, may give rise to under-estimation.
The prediction of cage volume reduction coefficient
has been verified by photos taken from each physical
model trial, which has indicated that the cage volume
reduction coefficient starts from almost 100% at low
current speed to about 45% at 0.26 m/s.
The majority of force is coming from the external
force on the net, thus the presently used drag force
coefficients, CD and CL which are restricted in Reynolds
number 1400–1800, should be modified in order to fit a
wider range of Reynolds number.
This numerical model has formed a foundation to
simulate practical net-cage systems, which include
mooring lines, floats, and anchors. A further study is
under processing in our laboratory to investigate the
whole cage performance under the wave/current action.
Field investigations are also suggested for the
interested group. Although, it is not easy to interpret
the results due to the random sea situations, the data
certainly will offer some valuable information for cage
aquaculture industry when moving forward to the
rigorous open sea.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported in part by ‘‘Aim for the Top
University Plan from the Ministry of Education
(95C100303),’’ National Science Council, and Fisheries
Agency, Council of Agriculture of Taiwan, R.O.C. The
authors would like to express profound thanks for their
financial supports. Also, discussions with Professor
John R.C. Hsu and Mr. Ben Liu for several fundamental
concepts are deeply appreciated.
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