Hydrodynamic behaviors of an elastic net structure

Recently, submerged sea cages are utilized in aquaculture industry. It is an important matter how to estimate the mooring force of submerged sea cages because of a harsh sea condition. In this study, to solve the mooring problem of the submerged sea cages, the authors deal with the hydrodynamic behaviors of an elastic net structure as a physical model of a submerged sea cage as a first step of this problem. A cubic shaped elastic net structure was employed to estimate the mooring forces extending the authors׳ previous study of an elastic plane net and its mooring behavior was estimated. The mooring displacement and mooring tension were calculated and the results are compared with experimental results. From those results, qualitative estimation for the mooring forces and mooring displacements of an elastic net structure are investigated. The mooring behaviors at various nets׳ pre-tension are also calculated and the result suggests that the sea cage nets׳ pre-tension affect to its mooring behaviors.