Abstract
A common Wave Energy Convertor (WEC) design involves a single-body heaving (or oscillating) system with a mooring belt coiled around a winch drum that is connected to a rotary generator. Typically, one end of the mooring belt connects to the anchoring system and the other end connects to a winch/generator assembly. The mooring belt is a critical component for the performance, reliability and survivability of this WEC design and dedicated component testing is required to quantify and validate the performance and belt integrity, to sufficiently de-risk the technology. This paper investigates the tensile properties and failure mechanisms of rubber-coated belts and different terminations used as mooring lines. The belts tested are rubber-coated with longitudinal Aramid cords. The stiffness properties of the belt are measured according to ISO 17920. The tensile properties show approximately linear relationship between load and elongation, creep under constant load and hysteresis during quasi-static and dynamic loads. Two terminations were tested, named the shackle termination and drum termination, whilst varying the shim thickness, taper angle, bolt torque and belt wraps to investigate the failure load and different failure modes. The results give important insight to the relationship between the termination configuration, failure mode and failure load. The failure load increased with decreased shim thickness and increased bolt torque. The termination efficiency is calculated for the termination configurations and compared to conventional mooring ropes. The results show that a self-tightening or pulley-type termination significantly increases the termination efficiency.