Comprehensive experimental study on the key performance of a semi-submersible aquaculture cage

The increasing demand for deep-sea aquaculture has spurred advancements in mariculture equipment. This study proposes an innovative semi-submersible aquaculture cage, for which a high-precision physical model was fabricated in accordance with Froude scaling laws. Comprehensive water tank tests were conducted, including towing tests, horizontal restoring stiffness tests, free decay tests, mooring force measurements, and hydrodynamic performance tests, to obtain the comprehensive performance and key parameters of the cage. More importantly, the influence of the netting on the cage's performance was experimentally investigated, and results demonstrate that the system with netting significantly influences motion performance and load distribution, providing crucial design implications for enhancing the stability and operational safety of semi-submersible aquaculture installations in real marine environments.