Simulink Modeling of Nonlinear Mooring System in Wave Energy Converters

Abstract

With the increased demand on energy every year worldwide, oceans offer a suitable and applicable way to give the world the needed energy. Oceans have a very high potential to generate energy onshore and offshore. There are several schemes and ideas to extract this enormous energy from the motion of the oceans' waves. One of these projects is the project that Prof. Magaña and his team work on. The complexity of the nonlinearity of the dynamics systems that are involved in the movement of the floating Wave Energy Converters (WEC) is one of the sectors that is needed to be improved. Mooring system is one of the dynamics that influences the energy production by WEC. The mooring system is essential for the WEC devices. It is used to keep the device in the same location and operates safely. Although the mooring system has many advantages for WEC, it acts negatively on the generated energy from the ocean. Calculating this taken energy by the mooring force accurately is crucial for design, analysis and control of the generated energy by WEC. This paper introduces a nonlinear model of the mooring force that acts on the floating bodies of WEC devices.