EP0132571B1 - Câble ombilical à profil hydrodynamique - Google Patents

Câble ombilical à profil hydrodynamique Download PDF

Info

Publication number
EP0132571B1
EP0132571B1 EP84106866A EP84106866A EP0132571B1 EP 0132571 B1 EP0132571 B1 EP 0132571B1 EP 84106866 A EP84106866 A EP 84106866A EP 84106866 A EP84106866 A EP 84106866A EP 0132571 B1 EP0132571 B1 EP 0132571B1
Authority
EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
cable
tension member
tension
jacket
electrical
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Expired
Application number
EP84106866A
Other languages
German (de)
English (en)
Other versions
EP0132571A3 (en
EP0132571A2 (fr
Inventor
Ray R. Ayers
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Shell USA Inc
Original Assignee
Shell Oil Co
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Shell Oil Co filed Critical Shell Oil Co
Publication of EP0132571A2 publication Critical patent/EP0132571A2/fr
Publication of EP0132571A3 publication Critical patent/EP0132571A3/en
Application granted granted Critical
Publication of EP0132571B1 publication Critical patent/EP0132571B1/fr
Expired legal-status Critical Current

Links

Images

Classifications

    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01B—CABLES; CONDUCTORS; INSULATORS; SELECTION OF MATERIALS FOR THEIR CONDUCTIVE, INSULATING OR DIELECTRIC PROPERTIES
    • H01B7/00—Insulated conductors or cables characterised by their form
    • H01B7/04—Flexible cables, conductors, or cords, e.g. trailing cables
    • H01B7/045—Flexible cables, conductors, or cords, e.g. trailing cables attached to marine objects, e.g. buoys, diving equipment, aquatic probes, marine towline
    • D—TEXTILES; PAPER
    • D07—ROPES; CABLES OTHER THAN ELECTRIC
    • D07B—ROPES OR CABLES IN GENERAL
    • D07B1/00—Constructional features of ropes or cables
    • D07B1/14—Ropes or cables with incorporated auxiliary elements, e.g. for marking, extending throughout the length of the rope or cable
    • D07B1/147—Ropes or cables with incorporated auxiliary elements, e.g. for marking, extending throughout the length of the rope or cable comprising electric conductors or elements for information transfer
    • D—TEXTILES; PAPER
    • D07—ROPES; CABLES OTHER THAN ELECTRIC
    • D07B—ROPES OR CABLES IN GENERAL
    • D07B5/00—Making ropes or cables from special materials or of particular form
    • D07B5/005—Making ropes or cables from special materials or of particular form characterised by their outer shape or surface properties
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01B—CABLES; CONDUCTORS; INSULATORS; SELECTION OF MATERIALS FOR THEIR CONDUCTIVE, INSULATING OR DIELECTRIC PROPERTIES
    • H01B7/00—Insulated conductors or cables characterised by their form
    • H01B7/0072—Electrical cables comprising fluid supply conductors
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01B—CABLES; CONDUCTORS; INSULATORS; SELECTION OF MATERIALS FOR THEIR CONDUCTIVE, INSULATING OR DIELECTRIC PROPERTIES
    • H01B7/00—Insulated conductors or cables characterised by their form
    • H01B7/14—Submarine cables
    • H01B7/145—Submarine cables associated with hydrodynamic bodies

Definitions

  • the invention refers to a seismic cable suitable for underwater towing having at least one tension member, electrically conducting elements and at least one air/hydraulic hose element and these elements being arranged side-by-side and spaced apart and surrounded by a continuously elongate, flexible jacket having a faired shape and at least one tension member being in the leading edge of the jacket.
  • an umbilical cable is required to pull a gun array, as well as to provide air, power and electrical conductors for shooting operations.
  • Conventional practice in this art has been to use jacketed bundles which contain various air hoses, tension cables and electrical conductors or to use armored cables containing hoses and conductors.
  • Such bundles do not last long because tow forces, wave forces and cable handling loads reduce the structural integrity of the umbilical cable to a point where conductors break and leak.
  • the tension cables tend to abrade the electrical conductors, particularly when the bundle is reeled around a sheave or a drum under tension. More specifically, the tension cables tend to put point pressures on the electrical conductors, causing breakage and insulation leakage.
  • Still another alternative is to build an armored cable with an outer-shell tension member, and hoses and electrical conductors within. This is feasible from a strength standpoint and is reel- able but has several problems: first, the umbilical cable is excessively heavy; second, the terminations are difficult to seal; and third, the cables are expensive to replace and have questionable reliability.
  • Flexpak(TM) An umbilical referred to as Flexpak(TM) is manufactured by Hydril Corporation (Bulletin 5086).
  • the Flexpak(TM) umbilical tends to "cup” into flow inasmuch as it utilizes tensioning cables at both extremities and is not the equivalent of the present invention.
  • Flexnose An umbilical with a faired shape referred to as Flexnose is manufactured by Fathom Oceanology Ltd. (brochures MSK4, September 1976 and MSK 61, August 1976).
  • the Flexnose is a preformed clip-on or clip-together and is not equivalent to the integrally molded faired umbilical of the present invention.
  • the object of the present invention is to provide a seismic cable suitable for underwater towing which has a low drag coefficient when deployed outboard of a tow vessel and which is reliable and capable of being turned around a sheave while under tension and of being wound upon a reel without damage to the cable.
  • the seismic cable suitable for underwater towing of the above mentioned kind is characterized by a torsionally resistant torque-balanced tension member having cable strands arranged with alternating lay directions and lay angles to be resistant to twisting, by an electrical bundle as conducting elements and by a jacket which is in situ molded between and around and thereby locked to the tension member, electrical bundle and hose.
  • a subarray 10 is towed with an umbilical seismic cable 11 at a position which is well outboard from vessel 12. While multiple floats are normally used, only one is shown here for purposes of illustration. It is often desired for seismic studies to tow floats far outboard on either side of the tow vessel.
  • the offset width 13 is directly affected by the fluid dynamic drag forces experienced by umbilical cable 11. Accordingly, the solution of the present invention to the problems of getting greater offset width is to provide a specially-built faired cable design with a tension member or tension members located at the forward or leading edge of the cross-section thereof. Two examples of this concept are shown in Figures 2 and 3.
  • the faired cable construction is like an airplane wing shape with the purpose being to reduce drag.
  • a round cable has a drag coefficient of about 1.2 to 1.3, depending upon its linear diameter.
  • a flat cable with the same thickness has a drag coefficient of perhaps 0.13, an order of magnitude reduction in drag.
  • the tension members 20 and 30 in Figures 2 and 3 are at the forwardmost locations followed by the electrical cables 21 and 31 and air hoses 22 and 32.
  • Tension members 20 and 30 are preferably anti-torsional steel wire rope so that when the umbilical cable is under load it doesn't tend to twist and is very torsionally stable.
  • the electrical bundles 21 and 31 are purposely designed to be much more flexible in the axial direction than the tension members 20 and 30. It is preferable to use twisted pairs of insulated conductors which are twisted around each other and then layered around a circle.
  • a soft insert 23 and 33 such as soft rubber, is inserted in the middle of the circle so that it acts much like a Chinese thumbpuller in that it has enough softness that when the cable is pulled, it will contract radially, and then when tension is slacked off, it expands.
  • the electrical conductors 21 and 31 are not tightly nestled.
  • the twisted pairs of conductors in each layer are not placed too close together so that the electrical conductors can flex, resulting in an axially soft cable.
  • the next member in the cable aft of the tension member and the electrical bundles are air hoses 22 and 32.
  • the air hose also is designed to be axially flexible. Some of the air hoses may be used for hydraulic hose as needed.
  • Tension members 20 and 30 can be coated with a soft coating to make them round and, where there is more than one cable, they can be circled together as shown in Figure 2 or placed side by side as shown in Figure 3.
  • electrical bundles 21 and 31 can be jacketed with a soft coating material.
  • the three elements, tension members, electrical bundles and air/hydraulic hoses, are passed through an injector mold having a faired shape and the outer plastic jacket 24 and 34 are molded.
  • Nitrile rubber or polyurethane are preferred materials, both being durable and flexible.
  • the two umbilical designs in Figures 2 and 3 behave somewhat similarly due to water flow around them, but they are reeled up for storage in different ways as shown in Figures 4 and 5.
  • the faired flat design can be rolled up like a single ribbon as shown in Figure 5, while the multiple tension cable umbilical shown in Figure 4 will automatically roll up with the nose toward the drum. It is wise to provide adequate reel width to avoid multiple layers of the cable of Figure 4 on the reel. It is important to design the air and electrical components of the cables to be extremely flexible in axial extension and compression so that reeling the cable on a drum will not cause excessive stresses.
  • the faired umbilical design as shown in Figure 5 can be reeled under a much lower strain condition than the multiple tension cable umbilical design of Figure 4. This is because the bending axis, or pitch axis, of the electrical components 21 and 31 and air hose components 22 and 32 coincide with the bending axis of the tension member components 20 and 30.
  • the tension members 20 and 30 are torque balanced so that the cable does not twist under varying axial load conditions. This is particularly important for the flat, faired design of Figure 5.
  • the multiple paired cables can be combined with opposite lays to ensure structural symmetry and thus avoid undesirable twisting.
  • a further advantage of the cable of Figure 5 is that it can be rolled up on a ribbon reel, meaning that it can be rolled layer on top of layer, but it is not necessary to have it layer beside layer as in winding up the cable of Figure 4. Therefore, it is possible to have a very thin roll of large diameter as compared to a thicker reel of smaller diameter.
  • This cable in the reaction of the tension member into the reel without having to load up any of the conductors. By comparison, with a round cable, the load in the tension member will squeeze the conductors in the process of feeding into the reel. This is effectively taken out of the design as shown in Figure 5 so it can be used with outrigger reels.
  • the advantage is that the load is not fed through the electrical conductors, but the electrical conductors, air hose, and anything that is put in the cable, in effect, just go along for the ride and the tension member takes all the tension.
  • the present invention is useful not only as seismic cable as above described but also can be utilized in connection with other towed bodies, e.g., a submarine.
  • other towed bodies e.g., a submarine.

Landscapes

  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Ocean & Marine Engineering (AREA)
  • Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Fluid Mechanics (AREA)
  • Laying Of Electric Cables Or Lines Outside (AREA)
  • Insulated Conductors (AREA)
  • Communication Cables (AREA)

Claims (5)

1. Câble sismique (11) approprié au remorquage sous l'eau ayant au moins un élément de traction (20,30), des éléments électriquement conducteurs (21, 31) et au moins un élément de tuyau pneumatique/hydraulique (22,32), ces éléments étant arrangés côte à côte et espacés et entourés par une enveloppe continue allongée souple (24,34) ayant une section droite carénée et ledit élément de traction étant dans le bord d'attaque de l'enveloppe, caractérisé par un élément de traction à couple équilibré résistant à la torsion (20,30) ayant des torons de câble disposés avec des directions et des inclinaisons alternées pour résister à la torsion, par un faisceau électrique (21,31) servant d'éléments conducteurs et par une enveloppe (24,34) qui est moulée in situ entre l'élément, le faisceau électrique et le tuyau et autour d'eux et ainsi fermée sur eux.
2. Câble de la revendication 1 dans lequel le faisceau électrique (21,31) comprend des conducteurs torsadés autour d'une pièce rapportée molle (23,33).
3. Câble de la revendication 2, dans lequel la pièce rapportée (23,33) est fonctionnelle pour se contracter en sens radial sous tension et les conducteurs torsadés ont suffisamment de jeu pour fléchir avec la pièce rapportée supportant la tension.
4. Câble selon l'une des revendications 1 à 3 caractérisé en ce que l'élément de tension (20,30), le faisceau électrique (21,31) et le tuyau (22,32) sont des constituants ronds dans l'ensemble.
5. Câble selon l'une des revendications 1 à 4, caractérisé par au moins deux éléments de traction (20,30) disposés côte à côte dans le bord d'attaque de l'enveloppe moulée en totalité en une pièce.
EP84106866A 1983-07-21 1984-06-15 Câble ombilical à profil hydrodynamique Expired EP0132571B1 (fr)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
US51615783A 1983-07-21 1983-07-21
US516157 1983-07-21

Publications (3)

Publication Number Publication Date
EP0132571A2 EP0132571A2 (fr) 1985-02-13
EP0132571A3 EP0132571A3 (en) 1986-10-15
EP0132571B1 true EP0132571B1 (fr) 1989-12-13

Family

ID=24054373

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
EP84106866A Expired EP0132571B1 (fr) 1983-07-21 1984-06-15 Câble ombilical à profil hydrodynamique

Country Status (5)

Country Link
EP (1) EP0132571B1 (fr)
JP (1) JPS6041705A (fr)
CA (1) CA1250490A (fr)
DE (1) DE3480753D1 (fr)
NO (1) NO165366C (fr)

Families Citing this family (4)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
JPS62182283A (ja) * 1986-02-07 1987-08-10 Nippon Parkerizing Co Ltd ステンレス鋼板に塗装下地皮膜を形成するための表面処理方法
NO319219B1 (no) * 1996-11-15 2005-07-04 Schlumberger Seismic Holdings System for marinseismiske undersokelser omfattende en fleksibel rorformet seismisk kabel og en integrert elektrisk kabel
JP5248530B2 (ja) * 2007-03-02 2013-07-31 リキッド ロボティクス インコーポレイテッド 波を受けるデバイス
NZ720460A (en) * 2013-12-24 2020-08-28 William Messner Integrated umbilical delivery system for gas, data communications acquisition /documentation, accessory power and safety for users in adverse environments

Family Cites Families (6)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US2435956A (en) * 1942-12-09 1948-02-17 Edward C Craig Streamlined conductor cable
JPS5026027A (fr) * 1973-07-06 1975-03-18
US4072123A (en) * 1976-03-16 1978-02-07 Byers Jimmy F Deep towing cable and handling system
JPS5388183A (en) * 1977-01-12 1978-08-03 Oki Electric Cable Flexible underwater cable
GB1580089A (en) * 1977-12-02 1980-11-26 Ericsson Telefon Ab L M Cable
US4262703A (en) * 1978-08-08 1981-04-21 Custom Cable Company Impact resistant control line

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
EP0132571A3 (en) 1986-10-15
CA1250490A (fr) 1989-02-28
JPH0452567B2 (fr) 1992-08-24
DE3480753D1 (de) 1990-01-18
JPS6041705A (ja) 1985-03-05
NO842411L (no) 1985-01-22
NO165366C (no) 1991-01-30
EP0132571A2 (fr) 1985-02-13
NO165366B (no) 1990-10-22

Similar Documents

Publication Publication Date Title
US4726314A (en) Faired umbilical cable
EP0177475B1 (fr) Câble de conduit de tuyaux pour utilisation sous l'eau
US6631095B1 (en) Seismic conductive rope lead-in cable
GB2056157A (en) Electrical cable
US20090242228A1 (en) Multi-Element Twisted Assembly and Method Using Reverse Axial Torsion
US5335620A (en) Protective fairing for underwater sensor line array
CN110761095B (zh) 用于海洋观测浮标锚系系统的混合缆绳及浮标锚系系统
US4190012A (en) Faired tow cable with stubs for strum reduction
CN103456411A (zh) 水密拖曳光电复合缆及其制备方法
EP0132571B1 (fr) Câble ombilical à profil hydrodynamique
US3472196A (en) Fairings for underwater cables,towlines and structural members
EP3939057A1 (fr) Câble de transmission de données à haute résistance
CN115954142A (zh) 光电复合中性缆
CN211112889U (zh) 用于海洋观测浮标锚系系统的混合缆绳及浮标锚系系统
US20220120984A1 (en) Improved high resolution headline sonar cable
US2894057A (en) Submarine cables having anti kink armouring
CN214012539U (zh) 一种抗扭耐拉耐弯折拖链电缆
CN214671889U (zh) 一种带气管拖链电缆
CN210722522U (zh) 一种基站用光纤铠装保护型光电复合缆
CN217405134U (zh) 一种扁平结构光电复合漂浮电缆
CN219832244U (zh) 一种零浮力光电复合扫雷电缆
CN216647881U (zh) 纵向水密耐海水多芯浮标电缆
CN220155226U (zh) 抗拉伸电缆
CN116959792A (zh) 一种超深水rov用轻型非金属铠装脐带缆
CN114967011A (zh) 一种自承式光缆

Legal Events

Date Code Title Description
PUAI Public reference made under article 153(3) epc to a published international application that has entered the european phase

Free format text: ORIGINAL CODE: 0009012

AK Designated contracting states

Designated state(s): DE FR GB NL

PUAL Search report despatched

Free format text: ORIGINAL CODE: 0009013

RHK1 Main classification (correction)

Ipc: H01B 7/04

AK Designated contracting states

Kind code of ref document: A3

Designated state(s): DE FR GB NL

17P Request for examination filed

Effective date: 19870401

17Q First examination report despatched

Effective date: 19880718

GRAA (expected) grant

Free format text: ORIGINAL CODE: 0009210

AK Designated contracting states

Kind code of ref document: B1

Designated state(s): DE FR GB NL

REF Corresponds to:

Ref document number: 3480753

Country of ref document: DE

Date of ref document: 19900118

ET Fr: translation filed
PLBE No opposition filed within time limit

Free format text: ORIGINAL CODE: 0009261

STAA Information on the status of an ep patent application or granted ep patent

Free format text: STATUS: NO OPPOSITION FILED WITHIN TIME LIMIT

26N No opposition filed
PGFP Annual fee paid to national office [announced via postgrant information from national office to epo]

Ref country code: FR

Payment date: 19940624

Year of fee payment: 11

PGFP Annual fee paid to national office [announced via postgrant information from national office to epo]

Ref country code: GB

Payment date: 19940627

Year of fee payment: 11

PGFP Annual fee paid to national office [announced via postgrant information from national office to epo]

Ref country code: NL

Payment date: 19940630

Year of fee payment: 11

PGFP Annual fee paid to national office [announced via postgrant information from national office to epo]

Ref country code: DE

Payment date: 19940727

Year of fee payment: 11

PG25 Lapsed in a contracting state [announced via postgrant information from national office to epo]

Ref country code: GB

Effective date: 19950615

PG25 Lapsed in a contracting state [announced via postgrant information from national office to epo]

Ref country code: NL

Effective date: 19960101

GBPC Gb: european patent ceased through non-payment of renewal fee

Effective date: 19950615

PG25 Lapsed in a contracting state [announced via postgrant information from national office to epo]

Ref country code: FR

Effective date: 19960229

NLV4 Nl: lapsed or anulled due to non-payment of the annual fee

Effective date: 19960101

PG25 Lapsed in a contracting state [announced via postgrant information from national office to epo]

Ref country code: DE

Effective date: 19960301

REG Reference to a national code

Ref country code: FR

Ref legal event code: ST