Research on anchor damage and protection of three-core composite submarine cable considering impact angle

Abstract

Submarine cables are important equipment in many power engineering and communication engineering projects. However, power transmission and signal transmission is threatened by anchors hitting submarine cables. Due to the nature of the helical structure of the cable, different angles of impact have different effects on submarine cable damage. In this paper, a three-dimensional dynamic response analysis model, “ship anchor – three-core composite submarine cable – soil”, is developed based on ABAQUS to study how the impact angle of ship anchors influences the damage to submarine cables. It explores the damage to cables struck by anchors of different weights and at different speeds. The longitudinal compression rates of conductors and the optical fibre units of submarine cables at different burial depths are obtained and advice for the protection of cables is provided. The results show that anchor speed has a greater impact on cable damage than anchor mass. The impact angle on cable conductors and the optical fibre units decreases as the depth of burial increases. A burial depth greater than 1.9 times the cable diameter provides a protective effect on the submarine cable.