The tidal power station system is the study object in mooring state, and model tests are carried out to study the motion characteristics of the carrier and mooring chains in uniform wave with different wave parameters while equipped with the hydraulic turbine and equipped without the hydraulic turbine. Motion characteristics of the carrier in the free state is checked in tests. When test data match calculating data, tests will be conducted to research on motion response of the carrier in mooring state and dynamic characteristics of mooring line. The motion pattern of the tidal power plant carrier in wave and flow is obtained through comparative analysis of test results.
Recently, some practical problems are widely concerned by governments around the world such as greenhouse effect, environmental pollution, depletion of energy resources etc.. Finding and taking advantage of ‘new energy resources’ and ‘clean energy’ has become one important topic of people from all circles, various universities and scientific research institutions all over the world (S.H. Salter, 2001; L. Zhang and S. Salter, 2004). Ocean energy, which is a kind of renewable energy sources, not only reserves abundant but also is inexhaustible, and could satisfy the growing energy demand of mankind. Tidal current energy generation is one of the key technologies of developing and making use of marine energy. It is significant to study the structural style and hydrodynamic performances of its generating device. Although devices of acquiring tidal current energy are various, they must be placed below the water surface. As a consequence, there should be a kind of construction, which has the capacity of bearing the weight of those devices, make them gain the tidal current energy regularly and stably.
Catamaran, a kind of special ship type, is superior to single hull ship on many aspects such as the deck area, stability, the ability to resist floating etc.. During the last several years, catamarans have been developed rapidly by the virtue of its specific advantages, and been adopted by more and more working ships. The requirement of the floating power station for stability is strict, and its carrier normally applies the catamaran hull form and the hydraulic turbine set is supported by the pound-sign-shaped structure in the center (Y.Z. Li, Q. Yin and Y. Liu, 2004; F.M. Jing, B. He, H.Q. Wang and L. Zhang, 2013). Moreover, the loads of the carrier structure are very complicated, because it even needs to bear the periodic dynamic load generated by the rotating of hydraulic turbine except for environmental loads like wind, wave, flow and others (P.L. Fraenkel, 2006; N.E. Turner, A. Areas and S. Owen, 2007). Although many research on hydrodynamic calculation of floating structure has been carried out in domestic and overseas, due to the complexity of the loads of floating power station carrier, it is difficult to calculate the coupling hydrodynamic characteristics directly by using the existing standard or mature theories. So it is of great significance to conduct experimental study on the hydrodynamic response of the floating tidal power station.
