On the Influence of Mooring in Wave Energy Converters Productivity: the PeWEC case

The aim of the present study is to analyze the impact of the mooring system on the power extraction of a WEC (Wave Energy Converter). A comparison has been carried out between the scenarios of non moored hull and moored hull: for the latter case, the mooring system dynamics has been evaluated by means of a Deep Neural Network, which compares the time histories of two identical simulations (one with the mooring and the other without). This has allowed to include the influence of the mooring on the equations of motion of the hull. By coupling the equations of motion of the device with the equations of the Power Takeoff (PTO), it was possible to estimate the productivity of the WEC system for a given sea state. The results on productivity for various sea states were then compared in order to make some considerations on the influence of the mooring on the operational conditions of the system. In a future perspective, this methodology can be used as a tool for design and evaluation of mooring systems for WEC systems.