Mingyuan Ma

Offshore aquaculture is gaining traction due to space limitations in nearshore waters, more pristine water, cooler temperatures, and better waste dispersal. This move has spurred the development of new technologies for offshore aquaculture. Despite the numerous analysis methods for designing aquaculture infrastructure, limitations and challenges remain in modeling the influence of fish cages on flow fields and in addressing fluid–structure interaction. This paper presents a comprehensive review of analysis methods and modeling techniques applied in the design of offshore aquaculture systems, emphasizing the structural reliability analysis. This review includes statistical and predictive analysis of extreme sea conditions, evaluation of environmental loads and hydrodynamic analysis, structural reliability modeling and assessment, and seabed geotechnical responses to mooring anchors. For each design consideration, the relevant theories and applicability are elaborated upon and discussed. This review provides valuable insights for engineers involved in the development and design of offshore aquaculture infrastructure.

Understanding the multi-cage interaction mechanism in fish cage arrays and the hydrodynamic behaviour of cage structures will help engineers explore the feasibility of offshore fish farming. In this study, a semi-analytical method is developed to simulate the wave response of an array of cylindrical fish cages with arbitrary layouts and dimensions, including the wave interference effects among the multiple cages. By eigenfunction expansions, the general solution of the present research problem is expressed in the form of a Fourier-Bessel series, and the corresponding particular solution is obtained by introducing relevant boundary conditions and the least-squared method. The simulation results show that significant wave effects occur at the top of the cages, and the dynamic response of each cage has obvious phase differences. Parametric studies on the wave forces show that the wave force is zero at a specific wave frequency and the wave forces are decreased under high porosity nets.

In this paper, a new semi-analytical solution is proposed to describe the interactions between ocean waves and a flexible cylindrical net cage that is submerged at different depths below the mean water level. The flexible net is treated as a thin perforated shell, and its deformation is governed by the membrane vibration equation of cylindrical shells. The small-amplitude wave theory is adopted to simulate the wavefield, while the flow passing through the cage is described by the porous medium theory. The numerical results exhibit significant wave responses of the net cage, including the distribution properties of wave surfaces, dynamic pressure drops on the net interface, and net structure displacements. Furthermore, the influences of several important design parameters on the hydrodynamic action imposed on the net cage are revealed by parametric studies. The present studies conclude that the significant wave impact is mainly concentrated on the free water surface, and increasing the porosity and flexibility of the net can alleviate wave scattering and the hydrodynamic actions. In addition, at specific wave frequencies, the horizontal wave force acting on the cage will vanish. These findings should be useful to engineers who are designing offshore fish cage systems.

In the present study, a semi-analytical model based on the small-amplitude wave theory is developed to describe the wave fields around a single gravity-type cylindrical open fish net cage. The cage may be submerged to different depths below the free-water surface. The fish cage net is modelled as a flexible porous membrane, and the deflection of the net chamber is expressed by the transverse vibration equation of strings. The velocity potential is expanded in the form of the Fourier–Bessel series and the unknown coefficients in these series are determined from matching the boundary conditions and the least squares method. The number of terms for the series solution to be used is determined from convergence studies. The model results exhibit significant hydroelastic characteristics of the net cages, including the distribution properties of wave surface, pressure drop at the net interface, structural deflection, and wave loading along the cage height. In addition, the relationships between wave forces on the net cage with hydrodynamic and structural parameters are also revealed. The findings presented herein should be useful to engineers who are designing fish cage systems.