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The horizontal rotor wave energy converter is a newly designed wave energy converter. While the mooring system plays a vital role in keeping the device floating stably, the selection of the mooring angle has immediate effects on the device’s floating stability and energy generation efficiency. Given the properties of wave energy along the coast in Shandong Province, this study combines wave statistics gathered from field measurements of a certain area in the Bohai Sea with hydrological data obtained in a field test in the same sea area and adopts Stokes’ fifth-order wave theory to theoretically design and simulate the mooring system for the new type of power generating device. With the help of AQWA software, data on the dynamics of the device at various angles are obtained to construct models and carry out regular wave experiments according to the most appropriate mooring angles to show the validity of the selected mooring angles. The consistency of the results between the experiment and simulation confirms that under the same working conditions of regular waves, as the mooring angle increases, the roll angle decreases first and then increases, the pitch angle barely varies, and the yaw angle decreases first and then increases. The adoption of this simulation method and the gathered experimental data help to provide theoretical and practical bases for choosing the mooring method for the engineering prototype and obtaining a reliable supply of power.

As traditional energy sources are increasingly depleting, ocean energy has become an emergent potential clean energy source. Wave energy, as an important part of ocean-derived energy, has been studied and utilized by coastal countries worldwide, which have developed various wave energy converters. In this paper, a new wave energy converter is designed, and water movement in fluid channels is analyzed. The results are, then, used to generate a mathematical model that simulates water movement. Based on this approach, the water movement state is analyzed, and a formula for calculating the natural frequency of water movement in the power generator is derived. The formula shows that the characteristic length of the water movement in the proposed generator and the backboard tilt angle at the exit point of the fluid channel are two design-related variables that can be used to alter the natural frequency; a regular wave experiment is conducted based on the fluid model, which is designed based on the natural frequency formula, to verify the changes in model torque and speed as well as whether the model can operate under normal wave conditions. This study lays a theoretical foundation for the design of further experiments and engineering prototypes to verify the validity of mathematical models by way of experimental analysis.

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