Tension Test and Simulation Analysis on Flat-steel-wire-armoured Optical Fiber Composite Submarine Cable

With rapid development of ocean power transmission, the flat-steel-wire-armored submarine cable will have potentials in application prospect. Consequently, we performed tension tests and finite element simulation to analyze the stress state of flat-steel-wire-armoured fiber-optic composite submarine cable. The research results show that: 1) the elongation will increase with laying tension, and rotation and stress release will occur in armored steel wires at stretching end along its own direction. Simulation results of cable elongation and tension stiffness are basically consistent with test results. Therefore, results are reliable. 2) Compared with other structures, inner cushion and outer cushion layers have larger strain deformation, and the maximum strain is one to two orders of magnitude larger than that of inner core. So they can play a good buffer protection role. 3) Combined with tests and simulation results, the maximum strain of optical unit steel tube is 8.5% of the total cable strain at the stretching end. And the average strain level is consistent with inner core. In addition, the additional attenuation of optical units in tensile tests is less than 0.05 dB, which meets standard requirements. These results show that the maximum dragging force has no effect on optical unit when flat-steel-wire-armored submarine cable is being laid. 4) During stretching process of submarine cable, large deformation fluctuation and stress concentration effect will occur at the ends, which should be protected effectively. And stress and strain trends are consistent with those of circular wire, showing that two types of armoring cables will have similar tensile properties. © 2019, High Voltage Engineering Editorial Department of CEPRI. All right reserved.