A comparative study of two fish farm layouts under pure current conditions

Abstract

High-value finfish, such as the Atlantic Salmon (Salmo Salar), are typically raised in multi-cage fish farms. The fish farm needs to be designed with sufficient strength and water exchange. A coupling algorithm between two open-source numerical toolboxes, OpenFOAM and Code_Aster, is utilized in this work for fluid-structure interaction analysis of fish farms. The two different fish farm layouts, i.e., the 2 × 3 array layout and the Honeycomb layout, are investigated in this study under pure current conditions with different flow angles. The fluid and structure responses of the two fish farm layouts are compared, in terms of flow field in and around fish farms, tensions in anchor lines, drag force, and total cultivation volume. The present results suggest that, compared to the 2 × 3 array layout, the Honeycomb layout has a smaller covered area and reduced environmental loads, which are making this layout advantageous for fish farming.