Numerical Investigation on the Hydrodynamic Characteristics of Submarine Power Cables for Offshore Wind Turbines Under Combined Wave–Current Loading

Abstract

A 2D numerical model for viscous flow is established in OpenFOAM version 10 to analyze the hydrodynamic response of submarine power cables for offshore wind turbines under combined wave–current conditions. It focuses on analyzing the effect of the cable suspension ratio e/D and the current-to-wave velocity ratio Uc/Um on the Morison coefficient of the suspended cable. The results indicate that for the cable suspension ratio e/D of less than 0.5, the strength of the dependence of both the drag coefficient Cd and inertia coefficient CM on the cable suspension ratio e/D is significantly influenced by the current-wave-ratio Uc/Um, while this dependence becomes less pronounced for e/D greater than 0.5. And the inertia force coefficient CM decreases monotonically with the current-to-wave velocity ratio Uc/Um, while the drag force coefficient Cd demonstrates a more complex, non-monotonic relationship with it. Based on the simulation results in this paper, a quantitative relationship between Cd, CM, and the key governing parameters is established using a two-layer feedforward neural network model, providing a method for predicting wave–current forces on subsea suspended cables.

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