Research on Coupling Prediction of Mooring Line Tension and Motion Response of Vertical Axis Floating Tidal Energy Converter

ABSTRACT Ma, Y.; Li, T.; Zhang X., and Zhang L., 2015. Research on coupling prediction of mooring line tension and motion response of vertical axis floating tidal current energy converter. In order to predict mooring line tension and motion response of vertical axis floating tidal energy converter, ANSYS ICEM and ANSYS CFX softwares are used to simulate stress of vertical axis water turbine and formulas are fitted to determine added mass and damping of rotation water turbine in wave environment. Based on ANSYS AQWA software, numerical time-domain coupled prediction method for the prediction of mooring line tension and wave effect of vertical axis floating tidal energy converter in terms of rotation of water turbine and motion response are constructed. Mooring line tension and motion response are predicted and the result is compared with the experiment result. According to the result, the predicted value of mooring line tension and motion response of vertical-axis tidal energy converter obtained by the numerical time-domain coupling prediction method in the paper corresponds with the experiment result. Feasibility and validity of the numerical time-domain coupling prediction method in the paper are confirmed. The research offers theory foundation and technical support for design and construction of vertical axis floating tidal energy converter.