| It is argued that the utilization of impaired mine waters abundant in WV and other mid-Appalachian states for fish culture can substantially increase aquaculture economic development. The primary limitation to the effective utilization of discharged waters is the lack of suitable fish culture tanks that can be easily installed in rugged terrains surrounding mine water treatment plants, where cast-in-place concrete tanks cannot be constructed. Therefore, Fiber-Reinforced Polymer (FRP) sandwich materials offer an economical option for production of light, transportable and durable fish culture raceway systems. This study is concerned with the development and evaluation of prototype fish culture tanks using a Honeycomb FRP, termed HFRP, sandwich panel with sinusoidal core geometry, which is produced by Kansas Structural Composites Inc., (KSCI) by a contact-molding process.; Based on defined functional requirements, a raceway system consisting of staggered tanks is designed, and each tank has a longitudinal partition wall to carry out parallel aquaculture studies. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)... |
