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Authors:
*Johan.1.hedlund@se.abb.com
KEYWORDS
Bending Stiffness, Free span, Structural damping, Vortex Induced Vibrations
wires. The bitumen layer will have a large impact on the numerical model is developed to calculate the build-up
bending stiffness, the Eigen frequency and the allowed of stress in the armour wires resulting from the shear
free span length of a submarine cables. deformation in the bitumen layer during cable bending.
The resulting stress distribution is used to calculate the
A typical three core double armoured cable with copper bending moment required to bend the cable.
conductor, XLPE insulation, lead sheath, filler profiles
and two steel wire armour layers with bedding is shown The temperature varying viscoelastic parameters of
in the picture below: bitumen have been determined from small scale testing,
in reference [5].
2. Methodology
A power cable usually consists of 1 or 2 layers of helically
wound armour wires. For umbilicals and flexible pipes
without bitumen covered armour the methodology,
described in [3], is well established for determining the
stresses and strains in the armour wires when subjected
to tension and bending. That model uses coulomb
Pic. 2: Typical cross-section for double armoured submarine cable. friction along with the contact pressure between the
wire and surrounding materials and this results in
Bitumen, which is used as part of the corrosion that the wire either is stuck or slides, this is called
protection system of the armour wires, is a viscoelastic stick-slip. The helical geometry is the same for cables
material where the mechanical properties vary with as for umbilicals and flexible pipes and is very well
temperature and strain velocity. The bending stiffness described in [6]. The same methodology is applicable
and structural damping of a submarine cable with for submarine cables with some modifications and will
bitumen covered armour wires will therefore depend be used to calculate the dynamic bending moment.
on temperature, bending amplitude and bending speed.
2.1. Helical Geometry
This paper studies the effects of bitumen on the
bending stiffness of submarine cables and how the The helical geometry used to calculate the wire
stiffness varies with bending speed and temperature. A displacement is mathematically described in reference
[6], below a simplification of the wire displacement in How the wire displacement is affected by bending if the
a Cartesian coordinate system along with explanatory wire sticks to the toroid can be simplified by introducing
Figure 1: the following expressions and replacing c with s, which
is the distance along the wire path:
(1) (5)
(2)
(3) (7)
Where: (8)
(4)
2.2. Viscoelastic Model With the expression from [5] replacing the elastic
model described in (9), in order to adapt the model for
Reference [5] investigated the bitumen shear mechanics submarine cables with bitumen coated armour wires,
in a dynamic subsea power cable by performing pull the wire tension, can be expressed as:
out tests from a cable sample at various temperatures
and speed in order to characterize the shear force that
is generated by the bitumen layer when the armour wire (13)
slides in relation to its neighbouring layers. The work
comprising 29 different pull out tests and 3 cyclic pull
out tests resulted in an expression for the shear force,
in bitumen as a function of velocity and temperature,
the result is described by (9). The total expression results in:
(14)
(9)
(15)
the wire along the arc, creates a bending moment. By Figure 3 displays a clear hysteretic behaviour which is the
integrating that bending moment along the wire for result from the armour wires sliding in the viscoelastic
all wires in all armour layers and adding the bending bitumen but also an elastic component which comes
moment, EImin, from the other cable components, such from the strain in the armour wire and the elastic
as conductor, the total bending moment, the cable stiffness of the other cable components. The dynamic
experiences can be expressed as: bending stiffness can be expressed as a simplified linear
stiffness by performing a linear estimation between the
(17) maximum and minimum response which is the green
line in figure 3. For the cable used in this example the
dynamic bending stiffness, is EIDynamic is 2580 kNm2 which
ca be compared to the static bending stiffness, EIStatic that
3. Results is 10 kNm2. Bitumen will thus have a significant effect on
the dynamic bending stiffness of the cable and it differs
The dynamic bending moment is a function of how a factor of 258 between static and dynamic bending
curvature varies with time. For VIV the curvature stiffness for this case.
along the arc is a function of the dynamic mode shape
displacement that is expressed by: 3.2. Structural Damping
In the graph below the bending moment and curvature materials and the more complex behaviour with helical
are plotted as a function of time. The lag between moment wires coated in bitumen. With the expression in (17) a
and curvature is used to predict the viscoelastic damping, linear bending stiffness is calculated for a given mode
the phase angle has also been shown in the figure: shape and by determining the phase difference between
curvature and moment the critical damping ratio is
Figure 4 clearly shows that the proposed model predicts determined. Both parameters are required to determine
a viscoelastic behaviour of the cable since there is the amplitude response for a steel pipeline and the main
a phase lag between curvature and moment. In the differences between cables and pipes.
case of a cable; strain corresponds to cable curvature
and stress corresponds to cable bending moment. The The amplitude response in [1] depends on various
relationship between viscoelastic damping and other environmental parameters and a couple of parameters
forms of damping is described below according to [8]: from the cable. Two of the cable parameters are the Eigen
frequency and the damping ratio. The Eigen frequency,
n is proportional to the square root of the dynamic
(20) bending stiffness and is used to determine the reduced
velocity, VR which is given by the expression below:
By assuming a current dominated case for the first damping which reduces the amplitude response but
mode shape an amplitude response of is achieved. The a lower dynamic bending stiffness results in a higher
reduction factor can be calculated as a function of the reduced velocity, in this case the increase in damping
damping ration and the resulting amplitude response as a is dominating over the decrease in reduced velocity.
function of damping is displayed in Figure 5 below: Frequency dependency is something that characterize
viscoelastic behaviour and submarine cables.
Displayed in figure 5 is also the damping ratio as a
function of amplitude response for mode shape 1, 2 and 3 5. Discussion
calculated with the viscoelastic model accounting for the
damping induced by the bitumen layer. The cable used for Cables are in general known to be very resilient against
the calculation in figure 5 was a double armoured cable fatigue and few cases are known where VIV has been an
and a span length of 25 meters was assumed. A shorter issue. This might be due to the fact that submarine cables
span length has the same effect as a higher mode number are very flexible and easily adapts to the seabed compared
with larger curvature causing a higher damping ratio. The to pipelines. The high damping and viscoelastic behaviour
damping ratio of mode 2 is equivalent for a meter long of the dynamic bending stiffness also contributes to
free span. The thicker lines are the amplitude response as preventing the onset of vortex induced vibrations.
a function of damping for the first mode shape in red and
all other mode shapes in green. However, if free spans occurs there are at the moment
no best practice for assessing the risk for VIV and
The proposed model for the dynamic bending moment the resulting effects for submarine cables. This article
is used to investigate how the dynamic bending stiffness proposes a method to adapt the cables behaviour to
will vary with different mode shapes and amplitude a well-established standard for steel pipelines. The
responses. standard, [1] takes several environmental parameters into
consideration such as current statistics, current profile,
Figure 6 shows that the dynamic bending stiffness wave statistics, wave spectrum, directionality, turbulence,
decreases with increased response amplitude. For higher seabed profile, and soil data. This makes it applicable in
mode shapes the decrease in dynamic bending stiffness all kinds of conditions such as current dominated, wave
is more rapid than for lower. This has to be considered in dominated, both shallow and deep water, and for a wide
combination with the results in figure 5. The decrease in range of soil conditions.
dynamic bending stiffness will stop when the damping
curve between the amplitude response in [1] intersect Limited testing has been performed within the area but in
with the increased damping as a function of amplitude [9] a full scale test has been performed and the vibration
response for the cable, as displayed in figure 5. By amplitude was found to be 0,4 (A/D) for the first mode
comparing figure 5 and 6 it can be concluded how much shape, which indicates a very high damping level. The
the dynamic bending stiffness will decrease when the cable in the test was a double armoured mass impregnated
vibrations starts, and in this case it is no more than 5 %. cable with a lead sheath. The difference in static and
dynamic bending stiffness was also observed with a
Figure 7 shows that low frequencies has an insignificant static bending stiffness estimated to 5-15 kNm2 for single
impact on the dynamic bending stiffness; the change armoured cables and the dynamic bending stiffness in the
in dynamic bending stiffness is about 2 % between 0.5 range of 70-90 kNm2. That observation also indicates a
Hz and 2 Hz. Lower frequency results in an increased highly viscoelastic behaviour of the submarine cable.