"The Island has been Handed over to Me": Ascension Island as a Company Colony, 1922–42

Ascension Island has spent almost all its years of organised human settlement as a military base. The major exception was between 1922 and 1942 when it was ruled by a civilian company, an unusual form of governance in modern colonial history. Though nominally subject to St Helena, and through that British colony to London, outside interference was largely restricted to rulings on colonial etiquette. The manager of the company was also head of both the government and legal systems. This paper considers the operation of this company colony, the tensions between the company and its workforce/subjects, and the contestation from 1942 for political supremacy between the company, the British state and the American forces that arrived when the island became involved in World War II. Ascension's narrative helps to exemplify some themes in postcolonial discourse and, given the unusual and extreme nature of the island's experiences, informatively broadens understanding of colonialism.     

Nonlinear dynamics of an elastic cable during laying operations in rough sea

A numerical approach for predicting motion and tension of extensible marine cables during laying operations in a rough sea is presented here. The solution methodology consists of dividing the cable into straight elements, which must satisfy an equilibrium equation and compatibility relations. The system of nonlinear differential equations is solved by the Runge–Kutta method, taking the effect of regular and/or irregular waves into account explicitly.

Illustrative applications of the method are given for a typical cable laying ship. The results are presented as rms values of the cable dynamic tension and corresponding dynamic factor for two different types of cable and several values of cable stiffness. The effect of axial deformation on the maximum tension at the shipboard pulley location is highlighted.     

Dynamics and control of towed underwater vehicle system, part II: model validation and turn maneuver optimization

This paper presents a validation of a three-dimensional dynamics model of a towed underwater vehicle system and discusses an application of the model to improve the performance of the system during a turn maneuver. The model was validated by comparing its results to experimental sea trial data, as well as to results from another independently developed simulation. The dynamics model was then imbedded in an optimization routine. This routine was used to vary turn radii in order to improve the U-turn performance. Significant improvements were obtained relative to a standard semicircular turn geometry.     

拖曳系统拖曳动态过程仿真分析

对于海洋缆索系统,论文针对传统有限段法的不足,提出改进的缆索有限段法,缆索离散为若干弹性缆段组成的多柔体系统,根据缆索的特点选择适当的参考系和广义速率,引入有限元法中的形函数描述段内各点位移,根据Kane方程推导改进缆索有限段模型的运动方程。基于改进的缆索有限段法,提出了模拟拖曳缆索释放一回收过程的变拓扑结构模型,即用可变长度缆段长度的变化和缆段数量的改变建模缆索的释放和回收过程。文中对一海洋拖曳系统进行了动力学仿真,与海洋试验结果比较验证了模型的正确性。     

Dynamic modeling of cable towed body using nodal position finite element method

This paper analyses nonlinear dynamics of cable towed body system. The cable has been modeled and analyzed using a new nodal position finite element method, which calculates the position of the cable directly instead of the displacement by the existing finite element method. The newly derived nodal position finite element method eliminates the need of decoupling the rigid body motion from the total motion, where numerical errors arise in the existing nonlinear finite element method, and the limitation of small rotation in each time step in the existing nonlinear finite element method. The towed body is modeled as a rigid body with six degrees of freedom while the tow ship motion is treated as a moving boundary to the system. A special procedure has been developed to couple the cable element with the towed body. The current approach can be used as design tool for achieving improved directional stability, maneuverability, safety and control characteristics with the cable towed body. The analysis results show the elegance and robustness of the proposed approach by comparing with the sea trial data.     

地电观测深井电缆的研制

井下地电观测是在地电观测中规避地表环境干扰的手段之一。针对井下地电观测装置长期稳定性的迫切需求,本文介绍了适用于井下地电观测中室外线路的内部结构、制作工艺、制作材料和可靠性检测结果等。本文所述型号的电缆能适用于开展井下数百米深度的地电观测,可保障井下地电观测装置的长期稳定性,是今后发展井下地电观测的关键技术。     

地形地貌检测在琼州海峡500kV海底电缆运维中的应用

简要介绍了琼州海峡500 kV海底电缆地形地貌特点及保护方式,分析了侧扫声呐及多波束检测的基本原理,对侧扫声呐在海底电缆裸露及悬空检测的原理进行了重点阐述。结合海南联网500 kV海底电缆近几次检测数据,通过侧扫声呐地貌检测结果,重点对海底电缆裸露情况、抛石坝及铸铁套管保护状况、海底电缆周围异常进行了分析,能够正常检测出海底电缆的裸露、抛石坝的坍塌及周围异物等异常情况。通过多波束地形检测结果,分析了海底电缆路由区域整体地形状况及抛石坝整体状况、通过Kriging插值方法生成不同的DEM(数字高程模型,Digital Elevation Model),分别从宏观和微观角度对海底电缆路由区域地形冲淤变化进行了分析,并对沙波稳定性进行了分析。结论认为,部分区域地形冲刷严重,容易造成海底电缆裸露、悬空,需要及早关注并采取防冲刷措施。     

Effects of mooring line drag damping on response statistics of vessels excited by first- and second-order wave forces

The drag-induced damping in a mooring cable due to combined first- and second-order wave excited motion of a moored vessel has been determined by statistical linearisation. A dynamic stiffness approach developed elsewhere is used to deal with the dynamics of the mooring cables. The power spectral densities of low- and wave-frequency responses are obtained which clearly show the influence of mooring line damping. The non-Gaussian probability density functions (pdf) and expected crossing rates of vessel responses and dynamic cable tensions are determined using the Kac–Seigert technique, and the influence of drag damping is highlighted.     

Submarine cables: a challenge for ocean management

The international submarine cable industry is a major component of the global telecommunications system, providing important services and requiring increased levels of protection for the maintenance of global economic and maritime security, broadly defined. An overview is given of the submarine cable industry, including its technological developments, legal aspects, security considerations, and implications for integrated ocean planning and management. In the context of multiple ocean use, submarine cables can cause spatial conflicts with other ocean users, particularly the fishing industry. Issues to be examined include compensation for lost or damaged gear, legal liability for cable damage, and regulation and licensing of cables on the seabed of the continental shelf and the high seas. Recent industry-to-industry agreements and programs for compensation to fishers in the USA and Canada are significant advancements in the implementation of integrated approaches to ocean management and planning. The development of transparent and stable interdepartmental processes for the coordinated planning, management and regulation of submarine cables is required for national EEZs. The regulation of international cable industry practices must be harmonized with national management approaches.     

The motion of a deep-sea remotely operated vehicle system: Part 1: Motion observations

Rapid and high-resolution motion and tension measurements were made of a caged deep-sea remotely operated vehicle (ROV) system. Simultaneous measurements were made of all six components of motion at the cage and ship A-frame and of the tension in the tether at the ship. Data were collected for cage depths of 0–1765 m. The most significant forcing was in the wave-frequency band (0.1–0.25 Hz) and accounted for over 90% of the variance of vertical acceleration. The vertical acceleration of the cage lagged the acceleration of the A-frame by up to 1.9 s and its variance was larger by up to a factor 2.2. For moderate displacements of the A-frame (≤2 m), the system is only weakly non-linear because the harmonics (3rd and 5th) of the vertical acceleration of the cage account for less than 2% of the total variance. The system is essentially one-dimensional because only the vertical motion of the cage and the vertical motion of the A-frame were coherent, while horizontal motions of the cage were weak and incoherent with any component of motion of the A-frame. The natural frequency of the system is 0.22 Hz at 1730 m, and we estimate that it is within the waveband for depths between 1450 m and the full operating depth of 5000 m.Large vertical excursions of the A-frame produce momentary slack in the tether near the cage. Retensioning results in snap loads with vertical accelerations of 0.5 gravity. Large rates of change of tension and vertical acceleration first occur at the cage during its downward motion and propagate to the surface with the characteristic speed (3870 m s⁻¹) of tensile waves for the tether. Six echoes are clearly detectable at both ends of the tether, and their pattern is extremely repeatable in different snap loads. Due to misalignment of the tether termination with the centres of mass and buoyancy, the cage pitches by up 14° during a snap. The resulting small radius of curvature poses the greatest stress on the tether.