Experimental study related to the mooring design for the 1.5 MW wave dragon WEC demonstrator at DanWEC

Abstract

The paper presents the results of an experimental study identifying the response of a 1.5 MW Wave Dragon to extreme conditions typical of the DanWEC test center. The best strategies allowing for a reduction in the extreme mooring tension have also been investigated, showing that this is possible by increasing the surge natural period of the system. The most efficient strategy in doing this is to provide the mooring system with a large horizontal compliance (typically in the order of 100 s), which shall be therefore assumed as design configuration. If this is not possible, it can also be partly achieved by lowering the floating level to a minimum (survivability mode) and by adopting a negative trim position. The adoption of the design configuration would determine in a 100-year storm extreme mooring tensions in the order of 0.9 MN, 65% lower than the worst case experienced in the worst case configuration. At the same time it would lead to a reduction in the extreme motion response, resulting in heave and pitch oscillation heights of 7 m and 19° and surge excursion of 12 m. Future work will numerically identify mooring configurations that could provide the desired compliance. © 2013 by the authors.