| Abstract: | An indirect tension measurement method of a towing cable in midwater or a buoy cable is proposed using underwater acoustic positioning systems, etc., to give the in-water cable tension. The most simple and traditional cable tension measurement method is to apply a mechanical tension meter at the one end of the cable, but the method has limits in the aspects of continuous monitoring and manual operation. However, the technique in this study is to apply the Pode's analysis of the equilibrium configuration and tension of a flexible twine, in which the cable tension is given as a function of the geometric positions of both ends of the cable. A set of nonlinear integral equations is formulated and solved numerically by the Newton-Raphson method. Then the inclination angles and the tensions at the lower and the upper ends of the cable could be obtained. The derived method enables us to track a towed object, to measure the tension of a towing cable or a buoy cable and is also applicable to the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) tethered to a mother ship. |
