Load effects on vessel-shaped fish cage steel structures, nets and connectors considering the effects of diffraction and radiation waves under irregular waves

Vessel-shaped fish cages are mainly composed of a large floating body, aquaculture nets and a number of steel frames. Due to the large scale of vessel-shaped fish cages, the velocity field induced by the diffraction waves and radiation waves cannot be ignored in the calculation of the loads on the net and steel frames. In turn, the loads can affect the wave-induced response of the floating body and hence the radiation waves as well as the sectional forces. In this paper, a novel method is proposed to consider the coupling effect. First, considering the irregular waves in short-term periods, the global response of the floating body is calculated in the time domain by the state-space method based on potential flow theory. Meanwhile, the velocity field considering the influence of the floating body is built according to the velocity transfer function. Then, the Morison formula is used to calculate the loads on the nets and the steel frames. Finally, the coupling achieved through numerical iterations is considered in the calculation of the twine tension, load effect of connector and the global cross-section under irregular waves. It is found that the diffraction and radiation waves make a significant difference in the twine tension and connector load effect.