Richard Turton,
Professor of Chemical Engineering
WVU College of Engineering and Mineral
Resources
A software program,
called Raceway Design and Simulation System
or RDSS, has been developed using Visual Basic for Applications
(VBA) in Microsoft® Excel. The purpose of the software is to allow
users to simulate the operation of an existing raceway or to predict
conditions in a raceway under a wide variety of operating scenarios. The
program simulates the conditions in a system of multiple raceways
arranged both in series and parallel configurations. The user can
specify the size, number, location, and price of any new fish introduced
into any raceway tank. Subsequent movement of fish between tanks or
removal of part of or all of a cohort is tracked by the program. The
required input data, include properties of the incoming water such as
temperature, flow rate, oxygen and nitrogen content, and salinity.
Oxygen and nitrogen levels in the water are predicted using input data
and stocking information that is provided by the user. Fish mortality
may be specified for each tank in the raceway. In addition, the costs of
food, the purchases of fish, and the revenue from the sale of fish are
also tracked.
