Shared Mooring Systems Applied to an Array of Axisymmetric Floating Oscillating Water Column Point Absorbers

This study investigates the performance of shared mooring systems for Floating Oscillating Water Column (FOWC) Point Absorbers (PAs), focusing on various mooring configurations to optimize anchoring efficiency. The research aims to demonstrate how shared mooring lines can significantly reduce the overall anchoring requirements for multiple energy converters, lowering costs and enhancing the predictability of their dynamic responses. Using OrcaFlex software, simulations were conducted to evaluate the displacement of the PAs under different loading conditions. The methodology involved applying external forces to the PAs and measuring the resulting displacements to form a watch circle, which helps understand the mooring system's behavior. The findings indicate that the simplification of considering linearized mooring stiffness has a good agreement for Compliant Mooring Systems under 50% displacement. Additionally, for the linear and nonlinear cases, the Catenary Mooring System has larger watch circles when compared to the Compliant Mooring System. These findings underscore the effectiveness of shared mooring strategies, making them a promising solution for offshore energy applications.