A step closer to wind-generated spray data collection in fish farms

One key parameter to estimate the amount of sea-spray-icing on marine structures or vessels is to know the amount of liquid water impinging on the structure. However, though some sea spray field measurements have been carried out on ships and offshore platforms, but no attempts have been made for structures such as fish farms. The fish farm structures installed in cold regions are vulnerable to spray icing that may lead to heavy load on the net and may result in structural failure due to the added mass and can also jeopardize the safety of the workers.

In our project, we have designed an efficient spray collector system that works autonomously. The system consists of a collector section that works on the principle of a cyclone separator separating the spray which is carried by the airflow, and the collected spray is measured on a Young marine precipitation gauge. The gauge measurement is not affected by the motion of the structure where it is installed and automatically drains when it collects a certain level of spray.

Apart from the spray measurement, we have also installed a wave buoy measuring all relevant wave parameters near the same facility. The equipment sends continuous measurement data over 4G, and the data is stored in the MET Norway repository. We will further install stations to measure other relevant meteorological parameters, such as wind in the 3-axis, precipitation, radiation, and motion of the structure, among others. The aim is to initially build a spray-flux model appropriate for such a structure. The ultimate objective is to utilize the spray model to refine the present operational MET Norway spray icing model MINCOG.