LAUSR

Abstract The hydrodynamic force on net panels in waves plays a significant role in the wave-resistant design of net cages in the open sea. To investigate the hydrodynamic force on net panels in waves, a series of experiments about different types of net panels in waves were conducted in a wave flume. The effects of the net solidity, the net material and the knot pattern were experimentally analyzed in this study. A wave force model for the net panel was proposed based on the hydrodynamics of cylinder in waves. The experimental results indicated that the horizontal force on the net panel in waves was larger than the vertical force, and the horizontal force was heavily depended on the KC number; In addition, the horizontal force on the steel net was smaller than that on the nylon net, and the knot pattern had a negligible influence on the hydrodynamic force on the net panel in waves. The model was also compared with existing experimental measurements and previous numerical results. The comparison results indicated that the wave force model could calculate the wave force on the net panel accurately.