TY - JOUR

T1 - On the mooring methodology of heaving point absorber arrays

AU - Meyer, Jannik

AU - Windt, Christian

AU - Sinn, Philipp

AU - Hildebrandt, Arndt

N1 - Funding Information: This work has been supported by the Federal Ministry for Economics and Climate Action under grant number 0324190. The authors would like to acknowledge the valuable support from the technical staff of the Ludwig-Franzius-Institute and the student researchers Sophie Beulke and Lars Kamperdicks during the model test campaign. The scientific colour map GrayC (Crameri, 2021) is used in this study to prevent visual distortion of the data and exclusion of readers with colourvision deficiencies (Crameri et al. 2020).

PY - 2023/8/1

Y1 - 2023/8/1

N2 - This paper aims at developing a mooring methodology for floating point absorber arrays. To date, the literature gives no clear indications of the mooring influence on the potential energy conversion of a floating wave energy converter. Hence, this study targets to provide general insights into the dynamics of a floating wave energy converter under the influence of moorings. These are gained by conducting an experimental study on the motion response of a wave energy converter array in regular wave conditions using three different mooring systems: a taut line mooring, a vertical tension leg mooring, and a conventional slack catenary mooring. Results show that the potential energy conversion is strongly influenced by the choice of the mooring system and the incident wavelength. In intermediate wavelengths, a taut mooring system leads to a 8% increase in energy conversion potential. In contrast, the tension-leg moored array exceeds the potentially converted energy of the catenary moored array in wavelengths significantly longer than the wave energy converter's length by over 80%. The results of this study provide an insight into the site-specific design of point absorber arrays and the best choice of the mooring system to increase the potential power output.

AB - This paper aims at developing a mooring methodology for floating point absorber arrays. To date, the literature gives no clear indications of the mooring influence on the potential energy conversion of a floating wave energy converter. Hence, this study targets to provide general insights into the dynamics of a floating wave energy converter under the influence of moorings. These are gained by conducting an experimental study on the motion response of a wave energy converter array in regular wave conditions using three different mooring systems: a taut line mooring, a vertical tension leg mooring, and a conventional slack catenary mooring. Results show that the potential energy conversion is strongly influenced by the choice of the mooring system and the incident wavelength. In intermediate wavelengths, a taut mooring system leads to a 8% increase in energy conversion potential. In contrast, the tension-leg moored array exceeds the potentially converted energy of the catenary moored array in wavelengths significantly longer than the wave energy converter's length by over 80%. The results of this study provide an insight into the site-specific design of point absorber arrays and the best choice of the mooring system to increase the potential power output.

KW - Experimental modelling

KW - Mooring influence

KW - Point absorber array

KW - Wave energy converter

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85159359893&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.oceaneng.2023.114659

DO - 10.1016/j.oceaneng.2023.114659

M3 - Article

VL - 281

JO - Ocean engineering

JF - Ocean engineering

SN - 0029-8018

M1 - 114659

ER -