Design and hydrodynamic analysis of a wave energy aquaculture platform for deep-sea operations

Deep-sea wave-energy-integrated aquaculture platforms (WEAPs) lack systematic design guidance, facing inherent trade-offs between structural safety, aquaculture stability, and wave energy harvesting. This study optimizes a 300 m-class WEAP under 10-year return-period typhoon wave conditions (JONSWAP spectrum) via numerical comparisons of rigid/buoy-sinker mooring systems and single/dual-WEC-pontoon schemes. Results show that the proposed eight-chain buoy-sinker mooring reduces the WEAP’s horizontal displacement by 92.4% and peak mooring tension by 27% compared with rigid mooring. For the dual-WEC-pontoon configuration, this mooring further enhances motion stability and boosts wave energy conversion efficiency to 38–42%. With excellent hydrostatic stability and a 7440.3 m³ stable aquaculture volume, the dual-WEC-pontoon WEAP with eight-chain buoy-sinker mooring serves as an optimal, scalable solution for 300 m deep-sea operations.