Abstract
The awareness of ocean sustainability has promoted the development of integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA) systems for seafood production. Bottom-placed fine-mesh cages could be a part of this system for the cultivation of benthos that feeds on sedimented particulates. However, the flow field around such cages is insufficiently researched. In this study, the flow field around two bottom-placed fine-mesh cages with a solidity ratio of 0.12 and 0.28 was examined experimentally and numerically, followed by a numerical evaluation of their performances for particulate waste collection. The velocity reduction factor along the centreline of the two cages was 12% (low-solidity cage) and 7% (high-solidity cage) lower than estimated using empirical equations by Løland (1993). The cages had little impact on the direction of the velocity field, and had no effect 0.8 times the cage length parallel. The two cages exhibited insignificant differences in the particulate collection efficiency. The high sedimentation ratio, due to the velocity reduction inside the cage, compensated for the particulate dispersion around the cage. This finding eliminates doubts about the blockage effects of mesh cages on particulate transport, stimulating further IMTA development.
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