Analysis of Mooring Line Tension in Floating Collar Net Cage

Abstract

World fish production is increasing every year. This is mainly because of the trend to use floating net cages in aquaculture. One of the common net cage types is the collar cage. The net cage system must withstand the environmental and accidental loads, particularly on the mooring system as its function to maintain the position. Thus, this study focuses on analysis in mooring tension of the fully scaled net cage using numerical methods. The model scale data obtained from a previous experimental study and then scaled up to obtain the fully scaled net cage. After validation, current and wave data at Pangandaran bay, Indonesia is adapted to the simulation. Morison's hydrodynamic force formula is used. Configuration of the mooring system is a rectangular array with a variation of spread angles of mooring lines between 90°, 60°, and 30°. The load cases used for simulation considering the operation and extreme conditions also the directions in lines and between lines. The result shows that the smallest mooring tension and offset is the configuration 30° in which the mooring lines spread evenly in each direction.