APPROXIMATE SOLUTIONS FOR CABLES UNDER GENERALIZED HYDRODYNAMIC LOADINGS

Approximate closed-form solutions arc given for the configuration of a cable under generalized hydrodynamic loading, in which the weight may take on any value and the drag is composed of arbitrary proportions o f friction and pressure components. The basis of the approximation is a set of solutions for a cable with nonzero weight under pure friction drag. It is shown that by using a simple asymptotic matching of these solutions with the exact value of the cable critical angle at large c able lengths, reasonable approximations are obtained for cables under a more general drag loading. The accuracy is further increased by repl acing the actual weight-to-drag ratio by an effective ratio, which acc ounts for the drag loading through the critical angle. The resulting s olutions are highly accurate (to better than two places) for cases in which the initial and critical angles lie in the same quadrant, and fu rnish useful estimates when these angles lie in different quadrants.