Experimental study on the force characteristics of an integrated net cage based on a monopile wind turbine foundation in irregular waves

Integrated structures of aquaculture cages and offshore wind turbines facilitate the efficient and sustainable utilization of marine spatial resources. This study employed a model test approach to analyze the force characteristics of an integrated net cage based on a monopile wind turbine foundation in irregular waves. The effects of the water level and net solidity on the load characteristics were compared in both the time and frequency domains. The primary results indicate that the maximum force on the integrated net cage is more significantly influenced by the significant wave height than the significant force. As the frequency increased, the difference between the transfer functions of the integrated net cage and monopile foundation gradually decreased. Under both the design high and low water level conditions, the maximum force on the integrated net cage differed, whereas no significant differences were observed in the significant force or energy density spectrum. The effect of the net solidity on the significant force in the low- and high-frequency ranges was not pronounced; its primary influence was on the significant force within the wave-frequency range. When the net solidity was 0.294, the wave-frequency component of the significant force was 1.185 times as large as that at a net solidity of 0.135.