Configuration reconstruction investigation on submarine cable considering varied displacement boundary based on the inverse finite element method

Submarine cables have become indispensable for the transmission of power and information. Cables are endangered due to the harsh marine environment such as floating platform motion, waves and currents. It is important to research cable health monitoring systems. A submarine cable configuration reconstruction model is proposed based on the Inverse Finite Element Method (IFEM) in this paper. The structural configurations are obtained based on a limited number of strain sensors by experimental results. The software Orcaflex is used to test the reconstruction accuracy of the large-scale cable configuration under a more complex marine environment and the monitoring sensor arrangement is analysed. Placing more sensors at both ends of the cable helps improve monitoring accuracy. Furthermore, a preliminary attempt at reconstruction in the time domain is made to prepare for investigations on dynamic monitoring. The results can provide certain guidance for the design of a cable health monitoring system.