Dynamics of small-sagged taut-slack marine cables

The snap tension of small-sagged marine cables operating in alternating taut-slack conditions is considered in this paper. The marine cable is suspended at the two ends on the same level. One of the two ends is fixed, while the other is subjected to horizontal excitation. A single non-linear equation of vertical motion of the cable is derived and solved by the Galerkin method. It is found that only the symmetric modes with respect to the mid-span need to be considered. Numerical examples are given and comparisons are made between numerical and experimental results which help to demonstrate the validity of the present method.