Análisis numérico y experimental del rendimiento de dispositivos de oxigenación en instalaciones de acuicultura marina

Abstract

Oxygenation has always played a very important and crucial role in inland aquaculture, since the dissolved and available oxygen for aquaculture species in production is the parameter that will mark the performance of any aquaculture farm. In inland aquaculture, it is common for water bodies in which fish and other aquatic organisms are reared to have low levels of dissolved oxygen, especially in times of high temperaturas or when there is an excess of organic matter in the water. Lack of oxygen can cause stress, disease and mortality in fish and other aquatic organisms. These episodes have caused, cause and will cause, very costly accidents to aquaculture companies, since they usually involve the loss of a large part of their production. Likewise, oxygenation is an expensive process, as well as essential, for any aquaculture facility, where the biomass present far exceeds that which the system can support, without additional oxygenation. Therefore, the design of efficient systems with operating costs as low as possible, involve a constant search among fish farmers. In general, the realization of models that allow to calculate and design oxygenation systems, by means of real scale models, suppose an excessively high level of investment, reason why the use, of mathematical models ors, has supposed a very significant advance in this field, since it allowsn, a considerable reduction of the necessary investment, as well as the possibility of repeating, changing and adjusting any model a greater number of times, with a considerable investment than necessary in the physical modes. Therefore, this doctoral thesis focuses on the evaluation of the yields of oxygen injection devices (venturis) in oxygenation wells, used in inland aquaculture, using numerical and experimental analysis methods. To this end, an extensive experimental campaign has been carried out, through laboratory-scale tests, using physical models, which represented a scale model of a real installation. Subsequently, using the data from the experimental campaign, validate the CFD numerical model, so that it can be used, in order to test other designs of oxygenation systems, dispensing with the physical model.