Numerical Analysis on the Effects of Submerged Depth of the Grid and Direction of Incident Wave on Gravity Cage

In this paper, the numerical model of the net cage with the grid mooring system in waves is set up by the lumped mass method and rigid kinematics theory, and then the motion equations of floating system, net system, mooring system, and floaters are solved by the Runge-Kutta fifth-order method. For the verification of the numerical model, a series of physical model tests have been carried out. According to the comparisons between the simulated and experimental results, it can be found that the simulated and experimental results agree well in each condition. Then, the effects of submerged depth of grid and direction of incident wave propagation on hydrodynamic behaviors of the net cage are analyzed. According to the simulated results, it can be found that with the increase of submerged depth of grid, the forces acting on mooring lines and bridle lines increase, while the forces on grid lines decrease; the horizontal motion amplitudes of floating collar decrease obviously, while the vertical motion amplitudes of floating collar change little. When the direction of incident wave propagation changes, forces on mooring lines and motion of net cage also change accordingly. When the propagation direction of incident wave changes from 0° to 45°, forces on the main ropes and bridle ropes increase, while the forces on the grid ropes decrease. With the increasing propagation direction of incident wave, the horizontal amplitude of the forces collar decreases, while the vertical amplitude of the floating collar has little variation.