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Improvement of fishfarm pen design using computational structural modelling and large-scale underwater photogrammetry

Objective


The results from the on-site tests of the Underwater Imaging System, and the Geometry Measurement System were extremely good. The resulting system is a full featured and state-of-the-art tool for a wide range of non-contact three-dimensional measurement tasks.

Similarly, the Computational Model has proven to be a highly effective tool for predicting the behaviour of fishfarm pen systems. It is also a state-of-the-art system within the field of geometrically non-linear structural modelling. The use of lights as photogrammetric targets was effective from a technical point of view As their deployment and retrieval proved to be the most time consuming and unreliable part of the geometry data aquisition process, replacement with a simpler target would be a priority for commercially viable measurement projects.

The use of computational modelling, together with underwater geometry measurement has been shown to be an effective tool for the development and better understanding of fishfarm pen behaviour.

The use of pneumatic stiffening is very good from an engineering viewpoint, but it became clear that operationally it is not a good solution. Pneumatics also suffer from the problem that if they fail during bad weather, which is the most likely time, the result is catastrophic. It must be expected that holes will appear after a period of use, so this is not a practically good proposal. It would seem reasonable to predict that when much larger oceanic iindustrial farms are developed pneumatic structural systems will become feasible.

The novel configuration which appears to be of most merit is the use of a hybrid structure incorporating flexible splines running through sleeves sewn into the net. Computational modelling of such systems was performed and the results were very promising. The resulting system exibits great resilience and progressive resistance to load through efficient redistribution. Operationally the system is well suited to the difficult working environment.

Topic(s)

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Call for proposal

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Coordinator

Wavemaster Ltd.
EU contribution
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Address
Co. Meath
37 Rathcairn, Athboy
Ireland

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Total cost
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Participants (1)