Hydrodynamics in a multivortex aquaculture tank: Effect of baffles and water inlet characteristics

The superior hydrodynamics of circular tanks over rectangular tanks are well known by aquaculturists; yet rectangular tanks are still widely used because of their easier handling. As a consequence, several studies have focused on the hydrodynamics of rectangular tanks, where rotating flow cells are generated by injecting water tangentially to the tank wall with the outlet placed in the centre of the cell. In the present work, we evaluate the hydrodynamics in a rectangular tank with 4 rotating flow cells of 1 m diameter, which is called multivortex tank. We also analyze baffle placement between two consecutive water inlets and the characteristics of the water inlet (flow rate and inlet velocity), which then allows us to determine the average velocities and the distribution uniformity of these velocities. The obtained results are compared with a circular tank having the same cell diameter and inlet configurations as the multivortex tank. Baffle placement between two consecutive water inlets in the multivortex tank helps increase the average velocity, the uniformity of velocities and the symmetry in the rotating flow cells. In configurations without baffles, the combination of low flow rate and high impulse force present the lowest symmetry. Differences between intermediate and extreme cells were observed. In all configurations tested, velocities and uniformities were higher in extreme cells than in intermediate cells. In the circular tank the average velocities achieved were higher than in the multivortex tank with the same impulse force, but the uniformity of velocities were higher in the multivortex tank. Finally, the proportionality between the average velocity and the square root of the impulse force for a specific tank geometry has been corroborated in commercial scale models. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.