Impact on submarine cables due to ship anchor – soil interaction

Abstract

AbstractAnchors are one of the main reasons for submarine cable damage. A certain permanent burial depth is necessary if the risk of submarine cable failure due to anchor penetration into the soil is to be reduced. Two factors are important for the burial depth: the penetration depth of the anchor in the first place and the influencing depth of the anchor movement. This means that cables can be damaged either by an anchor penetrating into the subsoil and coming into direct contact with the cable or by an anchor moving above the cable but inducing a pressure load on the cable. To investigate the influence of anchor movement on a submarine cable and to derive the possible damage mechanisms, numerical simulations were conducted using the Coupled Eulerian‐Lagrangian (CEL) method.