Abstract
MCS Kenny has carried out research funded by the Marine Institute on mooring systems for wave energy arrays as part of its ongoing research and development programme. This project built upon MCS Kenny’s core competency in riser system design and was envisaged as contributing to the company’s new business development activity.
The objectives of this research were:
1. To review the wave energy industry and define design parameters;
2. To establish a comprehensive set of design curves to facilitate the selection of a preliminary mooring system;
3. To develop trends in system response from the evaluation of a broad range of Wave Energy Converter (WEC) specifications, water depths and environments;
4. To assess the fatigue life of wave energy mooring configurations;
5. To prepare a preliminary Integrity Management Strategy (IMS) for wave energy mooring system arrays; and
6. To integrate all progress into a guideline document.