Validation of Cable Simulator with Towed Vehicle

Towed underwater cables with a towed vehicle at the tail have a broad range of applications in the offshore and marine industries. In the present study, a proprietary marine seismic cable streamer simulator has been validated against analytical and numerical results from Chaplin (1984) and Grosenbaugh (2007), respectively. A 4 km cable with wet weight 5 N/m having a towed vehicle connected at the tail is simulated for turn maneuvers. The towed vehicle has wet weight 1000 N, leading to a non-dimensional system scope of 20. The radii of the turns are varied between zero and cable length. Firstly, the drop-down ratio of the towed vehicle is measured for steady-state, i.e. perpetual, turning maneuvers at five different towing speeds. The resulting drop-down ratio as a function of non-dimensional turn radii is then compared to the other authorsí results. Secondly, the maximum drop-down ratio for 360∞ and 180∞ turn maneuvers followed by straight run is estimated for the same five towing velocities, and results are compared against those of Grosenbaugh (2007). Further, the maximum drop-down ratio for two S-shaped turning maneuvers followed by straight runs are investigated numerically.