Sandwich Cable Fairing with Viscoelastic Damping Layer
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing ribbon cable fairings experience significant flapping motions at high speeds, leading to increased vibration and wear, which current materials fail to adequately dampen.
Innovation Solution
A mono-ribbon sandwich cable fairing is designed with multiple layers, featuring high modulus of elasticity outer layers and a viscoelastic damping middle layer, allowing for increased stiffness and flexibility to minimize flapping and vibration, while maintaining the ability to be wound around cables during handling.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If a single-material ribbon fairing is used, then the fairing can be manufactured simply and wrapped around cables, but it undergoes large flapping motions and causes significant vibration at high speeds
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies composite materials by constructing the fairing from multiple layers of different materials (rigid outer layers for structural integrity and flexible inner layers for adaptability). This composite structure provides both the manufacturing simplicity of a single-component fairing and the vibration-dampening properties needed to reduce flapping at high speeds, directly resolving the contradiction between ease of manufacture and vibration reduction.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements local quality by using layers with different material properties at different positions within the fairing structure. The outer layers are made more rigid to provide structural stability and reduce flapping, while the inner layers remain more flexible to allow the fairing to conform to the cable and be easily manufactured. This spatial variation in material properties simultaneously achieves vibration reduction and manufacturing simplicity.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If rigid materials are used to reduce flapping, then vibration is reduced, but the fairing loses flexibility to wrap around cables during handling
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses composite materials with different rigidity levels in different layers. The outer rigid layers provide vibration reduction and flapping suppression, while the inner flexible layers maintain the ability to wrap around cables and be handled easily. This multi-material composition simultaneously achieves both vibration reduction and operational flexibility.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the fairing into multiple functional layers, each with optimized material properties. The segmentation allows the outer segments to be rigid for vibration control while inner segments remain flexible for handling, resolving the contradiction between vibration reduction and ease of operation through functional division of the structure.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The multi-layered structure effectively reduces flapping and resulting vibrations, enhancing the durability and operational stability of cable fairings at high speeds.
Implementation Method 1
the middle layer 'filling' is made from a viscoelastic damping material. The filling material acts to dampen shearing motions at higher rates of speed.
Implementation Method 2
The filling material acts to dampen shearing motions at higher rates of speed
Implementation Method 3
The outer layers ('bread of the sandwich') of the fairing are made from a material with a relatively high modulus of elasticity
Data Source
AI summary
A sandwich cable fairing designed for attachment to cables that are towed at operational speeds by marine vessels. The sandwich cable fairing has a design that combines layers of elastic and damping materials. The fairing dampens the vibration caused when the cable is towed at operational speeds. The outer layers (“bread”) of the fairing are made from a material with a modulus of elasticity that provides a desired amount of stiffness. In the middle of the sandwich cable fairing is damping layer made from a viscoelastic material. The layering of materials allows the fairing to have the flexibility to be crushed by cable equipment while maintaining the requisite stiffness to reducing flapping and the resulting vibration.