Understanding the soil mechanical response of tickler chain – seabed interaction for beam trawl fishing gears
Understanding the soil mechanical response of tickler chain – seabed interaction for beam trawl fishing gears
Advancement in tickler chain beam trawling requires precise estimation of seabed resistance to minimize marine habitat disturbance and fuel consumption of trawlers. Physical experiments to model seabed-structure interaction of fishing gear elements are prudent in designing less impactful and fuel-efficient gears. In this study, we developed a small-scale test setup, capable of towing multiple tickler chains in a flume filled with sandy soil and water to replicate beam-trawl gear elements in the sea. A series of model tests was performed to tow multiple chain elements on sandy sediments. Towing forces were evaluated for different parameters such as chain link diameter, tow velocity, angle of attack, penetration depth, soil particle size and relative density to investigate their influences on the mobilized soil resistance. Non-dimensional empirical relations were developed to estimate the soil mechanical drag resistance of prototype gears as a function of tow velocity and penetration depth. The method could be used to predict the vessel engine power and optimize performance of demersal fishing gears with improved catchability.
Bithin Ghorai; Niels Koorn; Geert Keetels
5th European Conference on Physical Modelling in Geotechnics (ECPMG2024)
Scaling principles and fundamentals
https://doi.org/10.53243/ECPMG2024-24
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