Estimation of Hydrodynamic Forces Acting on the Circular Cable Laying Ship

Undersea cables layingship are widely used for many purposes such as fishing. It is necessary to evaluate the hydrodynamic forces acting on the cable to ensure the design purposes. This paper presents the estimation of hydrodynamic forces acting on a circular cable attached to a surface ship based on the Reynolds-averaged Navier Stokes approach in Ansys Fluent. The cable is divided into segments and hydrodynamic effect on each segment is calculated for the range of inclined angle from 0 to 90 degrees. The tangential force and normal force acting on the cable segment are calculated for different inclined angles at different speeds. It is verified that the drag coefficients of the cable segment are consistent with the experimental data. The maximum tangential force occurs at an inclined angle of about 40 degrees and the normal force reaches its maximum value in the case of an inclined angle of 90 degrees. The local maximum of normal force appears at an inclined angle of 50 degrees. In addition, the flow pattern over the cable at different inclined angles is also analyzed.