Mooring Angle Study of a Horizontal Rotor Wave Energy Converter

Abstract

The horizontal rotor wave energy converter is a newly designed wave energy converter. While the mooring system plays a vital role in keeping the device floating stably, the selection of the mooring angle has immediate effects on the device’s floating stability and energy generation efficiency. Given the properties of wave energy along the coast in Shandong Province, this study combines wave statistics gathered from field measurements of a certain area in the Bohai Sea with hydrological data obtained in a field test in the same sea area and adopts Stokes’ fifth-order wave theory to theoretically design and simulate the mooring system for the new type of power generating device. With the help of AQWA software, data on the dynamics of the device at various angles are obtained to construct models and carry out regular wave experiments according to the most appropriate mooring angles to show the validity of the selected mooring angles. The consistency of the results between the experiment and simulation confirms that under the same working conditions of regular waves, as the mooring angle increases, the roll angle decreases first and then increases, the pitch angle barely varies, and the yaw angle decreases first and then increases. The adoption of this simulation method and the gathered experimental data help to provide theoretical and practical bases for choosing the mooring method for the engineering prototype and obtaining a reliable supply of power.