Numerical and experimental study of submerged supple nets: Applications to fish farms

Our aim is to investigate the behavior of submerged supple nets. This work generates many problems owing to the discontinuous and highly flexible nature of the nets. Only the action of external forces can bring an infinitely flexible structure like a net into a definite shape. When considering supple nets immersed in a fluid, these external forces themselves depend on the net geometry. A numerical method to solve this fluid-structure coupling problem is proposed, and is applied to fish farms. In order to validate the calculation model of the hydrodynamic forces on the mesh sides, we measured the hydrodynamic forces on a plane panel of netting spread across a transverse current. We thus proved that the Landweber model modified according to the Richtmeyer formula as regards friction gives good results. The calculated shape of the fixed net cage is qualitatively in accordance with flume tank observations. We have adapted the algorithm to the study of the dynamic behavior of floating fish farms.