Numerical Simulation of the Domino Effect of Mooring System Failure for an Aquaculture Net Cage Under Waves and Currents

Abstract

Up to date, the mooring system failure of aquaculture net cage remains a continuing problem, especially the domino effect, which often leads to huge economic losses. Thus, this study aims to investigate the domino effect of a mooring system of a net cage under waves and currents. In this study, a time-domain numerical model based on the Morison equation and the lumped mass method is applied. A full-scale net cage system widely used in a local sea area is adopted. A 50 years return period waves with a strong following current is considered to be the design condition. It can be expected that the tension on the remaining upstream anchor increases dramatically when an upstream anchor is lost. Then, the domino effect occurs if the maximum tension on the remaining anchor exceeds its design condition. Therefore, in this simulation, the initial failure is considered to be a man-made event at a preset time, but the rest failures are resulted from exceeding the breaking strength of a rope. Both the current-only condition and the wave-current condition have been examined. The results including mooring line tension, volume reduction coefficient and rigid body motion are discussed. In addition, the results show that the failure sequence of anchor is different between the current-only condition and the wave-current condition.