Development of a Finite Element Cable Model for Use in Low-Tension Dynamics Simulation

Abstract

To accurately simulate the motion of slack marine cables, it is necessary to capture the effects of the cable’s bending and torsional stiffness. In this paper, a computationally efficient and novel third-order finite element is presented that provides a representation of both the bending and torsional effects and accelerates the convergence of the model at relatively large element sizes. Using a weighted residual approach, the discretized motion equations for the new cubic element are developed. Applying inter-element constraint equations, we demonstrate how an assembly of these novel elemental equations can be significantly reduced to prevent the growth of the system equations normallly associated with such higher order elements and allow for faster evaluation of the cable dynamics in either taut or low-tension situations.

Tracking performance control of a cable communicated underwater vehicle using adaptive neural network controllers

“…For improving the capability of numerical dynamic simulation of the ROV and including the motion of the umbilical cable, it is necessary to develop an accurate representation of internal dynamic effects of the cable on the motion of the underwater ROV. Obviously, the tether dynamic is complex itself [22]. So many researchers work on modeling and simulating dynamic behavior of umbilical cables [3,4,27].…”

Analysis of Thin Beams and Cables Using the Absolute Nodal Co-ordinate Formulation

“…Examples of such systems are the pantograph/catenary systems and marine cables. While in some cable problems the effect of bending stiffness can be neglected, the effect of the bending stiffness becomes important in the case of low tension as shown in Buckham et al [7] or in high-speed pantograph/catenary applications [8]. Several authors examined the performance of the absolute nodal co-ordinate formulation and compared their results with the results of existing methods in the case of large deformation problems.…”

Time Domain Modeling of ROV Umbilical using Beam Equations

“…consistent mass). It has been proven in literature that lumped mass approximation is consistent with the dynamics of an actual highly flexible cable (Huang, 1994), and that lumped mass approach has accuracy equivalent to that of other more complicated methods (Buckham et al, 2004). To avoid nonzero diagonal elements rotational inertia is modeled as described in Cook et al (1989).…”