Mathematical Modelling of Mooring Systems for Wave Energy Converters—A Review

TLDR

Mathematical modelling of mooring systems is essential for designing, operating, and optimizing wave energy converters, with applications ranging from performance evaluation to fatigue life assessment, and a substantial body of work exists from related offshore fields. This paper aims to review the mathematical modelling of mooring systems for wave energy converters, synthesizing material developed in other offshore industries. The authors perform a comprehensive literature review, collating and summarizing published mooring models and their applications to WEC analysis.

Abstract

Mathematical analysis is an essential tool for the successful development and operation of wave energy converters (WECs). Mathematical models of moorings systems are therefore a requisite in the overall techno-economic design and operation of floating WECs. Mooring models (MMs) can be applied to a range of areas, such as WEC simulation, performance evaluation and optimisation, control design and implementation, extreme load calculation, mooring line fatigue life evaluation, mooring design, and array layout optimisation. The mathematical modelling of mooring systems is a venture from physics to numerics, and as such, there are a broad range of details to consider when applying MMs to WEC analysis. A large body of work exists on MMs, developed within other related ocean engineering fields, due to the common requirement of mooring floating bodies, such as vessels and offshore oil and gas platforms. This paper reviews the mathematical modelling of the mooring systems for WECs, detailing the relevant material developed in other offshore industries and presenting the published usage of MMs for WEC analysis.