Flow through nets and trawls of low porosity

In trawls intended for harvesting marine zooplankton the mesh size and twine thickness may be as small as O(10−4 m), the porosity less than 0.5 and the appropriate Reynolds number O(100−102). The flow locally through the meshes varies strongly with the Reynolds number in this range, and the entire flow field, filtered volume and drag of such nets therefore depend strongly on the net parameters and towing velocity.This paper presents a simplified model for the flow through and forces on inclined permeable screens based on pressure drop considerations. For conical nets the model provides simple expressions for the filtration efficiency and drag as functions of twine diameter, mesh opening, porosity, taper angle and flow (towing) velocity. Comparisons with test tank measurements of typical plankton nets show good agreement.