Analysis of a mooring line with a power cable for a marine current turbine

Ocean current power is focused on one of big marine renewable energy resources. To take advantage of the current, two floating type marine current turbines i.e. the contra-rotating system and the twin-turbine system are proposed. It is important to investigate about the mooring system combined with the power cable to establish floating type marine current turbines in deepwater. In this concept, a power cable is connected to the floating turbine along with a mooring line. This paper presents bending radius of a power cable and analysis of a mooring line equipped with a power cable. In the experiment, hydrodynamic forces on the mooring line are measured in the circular tank with two polyvinyl chloride pipes modeling a power cable and a mooring line for variation of current velocity and distance between two pipes. The lumped-mass method taking in experimental date into account is used for simulation of tension variation of a mooring line and a power cable. Results show that if the interval of adjacent two pinned connections is kept at a certain value, the required minimum bending radius is satisfied. It is also found that influence of power cable on the mooring line is small.