This project aims at developing a complete framework for resolving the hydrodynamics of a floating fish farm structure and analysing the structural response of the whole construction in a single high resolution CFD model. Several works in current literature have investigated the hydrodynamics and structural response of the various components of a fish cage independently. Due to the strong interaction between the different components of a fish cage structure, it is essential to evaluate the hydrodynamics and structural responses of the different components in a single framework. In this direction, the vision of this project is to incorporate an Finite Element Method (FEM) model to analyse the structural response to the environmental loading that is accurately represented by a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model.
The open source CFD model developed at the Department of Civil and Transport Engineering NTNU has been widely used to investigate several problems in the field of coastal and marine engineering such as analysis of breaking waves, breaking wave forces on cylinders, hydrodynamics of an oscillating water column wave energy device and motion of floating structures on waves. Thus, the model can be extended to simulate special aspects of a floating fish cage. This steadily growing industry in Norway requires focussed research to maintain its quality and growth with environmental and safety considerations in mind.
The main challenge will lie in the implementation and coupling of the CFD model with the FEM model. Strong collaboration with National partners MARINTEK and International Partners Franzius Institute, University of Hannover, Germany and Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay, India will provide a rich international research environment and the research results can be disseminated to the stakeholders in the aquaculture industry at an international level.
