A series of physical model experiments was performed to investigate the hydrodynamic responses of a semi-submersible offshore fish farm in waves. The structural configuration of the fish farm primarily refers to that of the world’s first offshore fish farm, Ocean Farm 1, developed by SalMar in Norway. The mooring line tension and motion response of the fish farm were measured at three draughts. The study indicated that the tension on the windward mooring line is greater than that on the leeward mooring line. As the wave height increases, the mooring line tension and motion responses including the heave, surge, and pitch exhibit an upward trend. The windward mooring line tension decreased slightly with increasing draught. The existence of net resulted in approximately 42% reduction in mooring line tension and approximately 51% reduction in surge motion. However, the heave and pitch of the fish farm increased slightly with the existence of net. It was found that the wave parameters, draught, and net have noticeable effect on the hydrodynamic response. Thus, these factors are suggested to be considered in structural designs and optimization to guarantee the ability of the fish farm to resist destruction and ensure safety of workers during intense waves.

Unlike conventional cultivation systems, liquid mixing in floating photobioreactors (PBRs) is solely induced by their hydrodynamic movement in response to waves, and this movement is affected by the wave conditions (wave height and wave period), the PBR configuration and the culture depth. However, to the best of our knowledge, a practical study of the hydrodynamic movements of PBRs has not been previously conducted. This study aims to investigate the hydrodynamic performance of floating PBRs in response to wave conditions. First, the effects of the experimental wave height (2–10 cm) and wave period (0.8–1.8 s) on movement was investigated using two 1.0 m2 PBR models: a square PBR (1.0 m/1.0 m; length/width) and a rectangular PBR (1.7 m/0.6 m). The results indicated that wave movement became not only more intense with increasing wave height, but also less intense when the wave period decreased. However, the square PBR experienced more intense movement than the rectangular PBR, but also little mooring force. The effects of culture depth (0.5, 1.0 and 2.0 cm) were investigated and the results showed that the culture depth significantly affected the hydrodynamic movements of the PBRs; however, the mooring forces were unaffected. Finally, the movement and mooring-line forces of PBRs equipped with different mooring systems were investigated. The use of two different mooring systems had little effect on PBR movement; however, a mooring system with floaters was able to significantly reduce the mooring line forces compared to a system without floaters. During this study, the greatest force (10.5 N) was found for the rectangular PBR using a mooring system without floaters, whereas the lowest force (0.67 N) was observed for a rectangular PBR using a mooring system with floaters. These studies have provided basic data describing the fluid dynamics of floating PBRs; as well as their structural design and scale up. These results also provide guidance for the selection of ocean fields with suitable wave conditions; as well as a proper mooring methods to ensure safe operation.

This study on hydrodynamic coefficients of a column-stabilized fish cage under wave action plays an important role in the anti-wave design of cages. The regular wave test was used to study the horizontal wave force of the jacket and column-stabilized fish cage under different wave heights, periods, and incident angles; the finite element model of the jacket and the column-stabilized fish cage was established according to the test model. On the basis of the calculation of the finite element model, combined with the wave force obtained from the experiment, the hydrodynamic coefficients of the structure was fitted by the least squares method, and then the drag force, inertial force, and total force of the structure under different conditions were calculated. The results show that the hydrodynamic coefficients of the jacket and netting under the wave condition were more obvious with the change of the KC number and wave incident angles. And as the wave height increased, the drag force, the inertial force, and the proportion of the drag force to the horizontal wave force both increased. When the wavelength was large, the same trend occured as the wave period increased. When the wave incident angles were different, the forces of the jacket and the column-stabilized fish cage were always small in lateral low-frequency waves, which is consistent with the change law of hydrodynamic coefficients of the jacket and netting.

Offshore wind power is gradually developing to more open sea. Considering the economy of power transmission, it will be an inevitable choice to adopt the extra-large electrical platform. The offshore electrical platform is easily affected by sudden extreme loads such as earthquake and high current loads. With a large volume of electrical equipment arranged on the deck, the offshore electrical platform is characterized as a top-heavy structure in the offshore wind farm. The dynamic effect of the structure will aggravate the vibration problem of the structure. In this paper, a physical model test was carried out to study the dynamic characteristics of the electrical platform of a 10,000-ton offshore converter station under seismic load. The acceleration response, displacement response and stress response of the offshore electrical platform under the typical direction of seismic action were obtained. The effect of the dry–wet environment, mode of seismic excitation, whipping effect and weak positions of electrical platform structure were analyzed. It was determined that the average damping ratio of the first-order mode of the electrical platform was 5.73% and 8.68% with and without water, respectively. The bidirectional seismic excitation was more dangerous to the structure than unidirectional excitation. The peak acceleration along the height of the platform showed a typical whipping effect.