Numerical Investigations on Wake Effects of Fish Cages

Abstract

A typical fish farm in Norway usually consists of 6–12 fish cages, and these fish cages are moored together in a grid shape. Due to wake effects, individual fish cages may experience different flow velocities depending on their positions in the fish farm. Hereby, the drag forces on individual fish cages can be different. The drag forces on the downstream fish cages are difficult to estimate without knowing the exact flow velocity, which will lead to challenges with the mooring system design. In this study, the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method combined with a porous-media model is employed to investigate the wake effects on the fish farm. The flow field through the fish cages and the drag forces on the downstream fish cages are investigated and discussed.