Structural Response Research for a Submarine Power Cable with Corrosion-Damaged Tensile Armor Layers Under Pure Tension

Abstract

Submarine power cables (SPCs), as critical infrastructure for offshore wind farms, are the primary conduits for transmitting electricity from turbines to the grid. Actions such as seabed friction can cause damage to the submarine power cable’s outer sheath, accelerating the penetration of seawater corrosion media. This subsequently leads to corrosion fatigue or excessive loading in the tensile armor layer, which seriously threatens the long-term operational reliability of SPCs and the security of energy transmission. Based on homogenization theory and periodic boundary conditions, a repetitive unit cell (RUC) ABAQUS finite element model for a single-core submarine power cable (SPC) was established in this paper. And the mechanical response of the single-core SPC with the corroded tensile armor layers under tensile loading condition were systematically investigated. By comparing with a full-scale model, the feasibility and accuracy of the cable RUC damaged model proposed in this paper were effectively verified. It was found that the RUC damaged model exhibits significant stress concentration phenomena due to localized corrosion damage in the tensile armor layers, with its maximum von Mises stress being considerably higher than that of the RUC intact model; the elastic tensile stiffness of the SPC continuously decreases with increasing corrosion damage depth, but the magnitude of this reduction is small. This is because the corroded region is relatively small compared to the entire cable model dimension. This research reveals the potential impact of localized corrosion on the mechanical performance of the tensile armor layer, which can hold significant engineering importance for assessing the remaining load-bearing capacity of in-service SPCs and ensuring the reliability of subsea energy transmission corridors.

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