Numerical Modeling of the Interaction of Moving Fish Nets and Fluid

Abstract

The significant difference in length scales between the flow around a moving fish net and the flow around each twine of the net prevents the resolution of the complete structure within a discrete fluid domain. In this article, this issue is overcome by calculating the net and fluid dynamics separately and incorporate their interaction implicitly. The forces on the net are approximated using a screen force model, and the motion of the net is computed with a lumped mass method. Here, a linear system of equations is derived from the dynamic equilibria and kinematic relations. The net model is coupled to the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) solver reef3d, which solves the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations using high-order finite differences in space and time. Several numerical calculations are provided, and the comparison of loads and velocity reduction with available measurements indicates the good performance of the proposed model.