Mechanical
JDR Cables, Cambridgeshire, UK
An umbilical cable on a drum ready
to be placed on a ship for laying.
Analysis of Subsea Umbilicals and Cables
Simulation has enabled JDR to provide its customers with full stress analysis in addition to physical testing.
At half the cost for five times the amount of data, this option is now a popular choice.
By Jennifer Hand
D eep water pressure, wind and wave
forces, and the rough ocean bed —
these all have to be anticipated in the de-
sectors. “In order to understand fatigue JDR was already using OrcaFlex, the
properties and performance, a typical fa- specialist package designed for the off-
tigue regime for an umbilical is to under- shore marine industry, for global analy-
sign of underwater cables for the offshore go 100,000 usage cycles around a sheave sis of the whole system formed by ship,
oil and gas industry. Known as umbilical wheel on a large fatigue rig. At approxi- cable, seabed, weather, water and well-
systems and housing power, hydraulic mately 6,000 cycles per day, plus all the head. After ISO standards were updated
control, electric signal, fiber optic and other required testing, it takes at least a in 2009 with new specifications for the
chemical injection links, these umbilicals month to complete the process and costs analysis of umbilicals, JDR began con-
must be extremely durable, particularly between $30,000 and $50,000 for all the ducting local stress and thermal analysis
under severe coupled bending, torsional resources involved. It is critical that we of their cables.
and axial loads. In addition to Umbilicals, however, pose a
these harsh conditions, they particularly complex analysis
have to withstand handling un- challenge as Poole explains:
der tension as they are reeled “Typically they incorporate mul-
out and back numerous times tiple layers of wire with helical
by a winch designed to have geometries and multiple con-
a tight radius to minimize its tact points, or they contain ara-
footprint on a ship’s deck. mid (Kevlar) braid, a synthetic
Because umbilicals are long, material that is very difficult to
they need to be strong, and analyze because of its braided
are generally very heavy and construction.” JDR therefore
difficult to handle. Thus, the turned to COMSOL Certified
physical testing of these cables Figure 1. Illustration of the counter-rotating armor layered that includes Consultant, Continuum Blue
is cumbersome and expensive. multiple contact points of individual armor wires. for some specialist assistance.
Tim Poole, Design Automa-
tion Engineer, is responsible for testing can predict the behavior of our products Helical Wires with Multiple
and analyzing products at JDR, which to ensure they meet the requirements, so Contact Points
custom-designs and manufactures sub- while physical testing is very important, Dr. Mark Yeoman of Continuum Blue
sea power cables, umbilical systems and it has its limitations. Apart from the time picks up the story. “Our starting point was
reeler packages for a broad range of appli- and cost factors, we cannot replicate con- a 2D cross-section of a cable, including
cations in the oil and gas and renewable ditions 100%.” material specifications. What was of con-
5 6 // C o m s o l N E W S 2 0 1 2
mEChANiCAl
JDR Cables, CambRiDgeshiRe, UK
“ The beauty of ComSol and their analysis is a.
the option to explore many loading conditions
on various cable designs, and compare the
results in a very short space of time.”
cern was that the cable cross-section had to help define the bespoke
a double armor layered structure with 50- contact expressions and
60 armor wires in each layer, where each parameters that were nec-
layer twisted along the length in the op- essary to solve the contact b.
posite direction to the other layer. Build- analysis. Everything was
ing the model to reflect bend and axial then imported into COM-
load conditions with contact for the inter- SOL Multiphysics so that
nal structures was done, but also included it could be solved.” Wires
adding in the contact for these counter- were modeled as contact
rotating armor wires. This resulted in well pairs moving between a
over 3,000 localized regions of high contact sliding surface and ana-
pressure along a unit length of cable, cre- lyzed for pure bending,
ating high stresses at every point of con- pure tension and a combi-
tact.” (Figure 1). nation of both.
Continuum Blue’s answer was to build According to Dr. Yeoman, figure 3. a) Stress analysis of subsea cable components
a bespoke, or customized program, so the beauty of COMSOL and under combined bend and axial load conditions (isometric
that JDR could quickly and easily gener- multiphysics analysis is the & front view), b) detailed stress analysis of armor layered
structures only.
ate the 3D cable structure through COM- option to explore many load-
SOL’s Livelink™ for MATLAB® and then ing conditions on various
build the COMSOL cable model (Figure cable designs, and compare
2). The MATLAB® code added advanced the results in a very short space of time. More Information, Less Cost
material properties and relations from “It now takes two days to build a full 3D “The first time we adopted this approach
Continuum Blue’s extensive materials cable model ready to solve from an initial it worked really well,” comments Poole. “The
database, and utilized these properties design and 2D drawing, and from there it models were clear, the local stress analysis
is left to COMSOL to was reliable and we were able to feed the
solve the various load values obtained into our OrcaFlex models.”
conditions needed to JDR has now worked with Continuum Blue
be assessed. We can on developing its capabilities, and JDR can
conduct seven or eight now analyze subsea cable structures with
different types of anal- multiple internal counter-rotating struc-
yses. For example, we tures and up to six protective armor layers
test different axial load with ease. From ten weeks on the original
conditions and various project, turn-around time is now down to
bend radiuses. This two weeks and the amount of data pro-
allows JDR to assess duced has risen five fold. “Not only are we
many design scenarios, able to analyze the fatigue characteristics of
where comprehensive our umbilicals using COMSOL, we are also
stress, strains, and con- able to analyze thermal characteristics.”
tact analysis plots can Analysis can be half the cost of physi-
be analyzed, ensuring cal testing. While some of JDR’s custom-
cable survival during ers still choose physical testing, others
figure 2. Screenshot of the bespoke Cable Building code, illustrating laying and use. This are opting for a combination of global and
Schematics of Cable Cross Section (top left), input parameters (bottom improves the life of the local analysis. “We are simply providing
left) and sectional 3d Structure (right). Colored regions indicate various
cable, while reducing our customers with a choice and we plan
components within a subsea cable that include armor layers (red),
various hose types (large high pressure (magenta), medium pressure the costs involved in to extend our use of COMSOL so that we
(yellow) and low pressure (green)), quad core structures for power and testing and manufac- can continue to give them more informa-
data transmission (cyan) and various filler elements (blue). ture.” (Figure 3). tion,” concludes Poole. ■
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