Objective
The aim of the proposed research work is to develop fuel saving bottom trawl designs for Italian and Danish fisheries, that can combine the features of high headlines height and good footrope contact with that of low towing resistance. Fuel savings are to be obtained by the use of new netting materials of low drag characteristics and the use of larger meshes in the upper part of the trawl.
The research work comprises the following main phases.
Phase 1 is the data review and initial design. Review will be made by each institute of commercial trawl specifications and availability of low drag netting materials. A typical trawl specification for a vessel of 500 horsepower will be selected for each country.
Phase 2 is the netting material tests. Measurements of the diameter and wet knotted strength of traditional and new netting twines of low drag characteristics (in particular new high performance Dynema and knotless netting) will be obtained in the 2 institutes.
Phase 3 is the model tests. Large scale models of the 2 chosen trawls based on the use of traditional materials will be constructed by DIFTA. Their geometry and towing resistance will be measured in detail in the flume tank. Computer predictions will be made of the effect of introducing large mesh netting to the upper parts of the trawl or new long drag materials in all the different trawl sections. It will be determined which types of material and mesh sizes should be used in the different sections to obtain the maximum reduction in towing resistance.
Phase 4 is the instrumented full scale tests. Each institute will supervise the construction of a standard and an alternative low drag trawl for their respective country's fisheries. These will be tested at sea on a research vessel.
Phase 5 is the commercial trials in Denmark. The commercial trials will be done for a period of 5 days on board a 500 horsepower commercial trawler. The low drag and standard trawls will be fished alongside each other in a twin trawl system in order to compare catch rates and catch composition. The trawls will be towed singly in order to compare fuel consumption. Sections of the new netting materials will be removed and their abrasion and strength examined at the end of the trials.
Phase 6 is the commercial trials in Italy. Similar commercial trials will be arranged in Italy, with the exception that catch comparison will be made using parallel tows by 2 vessels.
Phase 7 is the final report. An economic evaluation of the result will be made comparing predicted fuel savings with increased gear investments and any alterations in catch revenue resulting from adoption of the new fuel saving designs.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- agricultural sciencesagriculture, forestry, and fisheriesfisheries
- natural sciencesmathematicspure mathematicsgeometry
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringenergy and fuels
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60125 ANCONA
Italy