We have the capability of doing advanced flow simulations of recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS). CFD can give fine details of flow patterns, dead-zones, temperature distributions and much, much more.
We have experimented with a high velocity inlet RAS-tank of dimensions 15 m by 15 m, a water level of 3 m and a total water volume of about 650 m3.
The inlet is 0.5 m above the water line, and the outlet is located in the center at the bottom of the tank.
Some vortices are visible when visualising the flow, which may indicate unfavorable conditions for the fish in these areas. However, the velocities here are not high, and some vortices are simply inevitable. This is the kind of decision making that is available early in the design process when using CFD.
The stream lines are here seen converging at the outlet.
This simulation was done in OpenFOAM, and carried out on our own high performance computing server.
We are always striving to further improve our flow analyses and achieve even better and more precise results than before.
Please contact us if you are interested in RAS and flow analyses on these systems.