Hydrodynamic Shape Optimization of Fishing Gear Trawl-Doors

Abstract

Rising fuel prices and inefficient fishing gear are hampering the fishing industry. Any improvements of the equipment that lead to reduced operating costs of the fishing vessels are highly desirable. This chapter describes an efficient optimization algorithm for the design of trawl-door shapes using accurate high-fidelity computational fluid dynamic models. Usage of the algorithm is demonstrated on the re-design of typical trawl-doors at high- and low-angle of attack.