Study on Reducing Towing Drag by Varying the Shape and Arrangement of Floats and Gears

Abstract

Many studies have been conducted with the aim of reducing fuel consumption by the fishing industry. We examined whether drag can be reduced by changing the arrangement of gears without requiring the development of new parts for the conventional float and ground gear. Ten differently shaped floats and ground gears were measured in a water flume tank. The float and ground gear were fixed to a steel rod to measure fluid drag according to attack angle, using a multi-component load cell. To estimate the frictional drag of ground gear on the seabed, five types of large ground gear were towed on flat land while changing attack angle using the load cell to measure tension. The fluid drag of the float and ground gear was highest at an attack angle of 60°, regardless of shape, size, and flow velocity. The resistance coefficients of the float and ground gear varied depending on the attack angle and tended to be lower at small attack angles. The frictional drag of the ground gear was greater when the axis of rotation had a small attack angle in the towing direction compared to other attack angles. We then investigated a method for designing bottom-towed gear that reduces drag while maintaining the size, buoyancy, and sinking force of conventional fishing gear parts. This gear design showed 1.2% drag reduction and an estimated 0.8% improvement in fuel efficiency per haul.