An Underwater Wet-Mateable Electrical Connector with Dual-Bladder Pressure-Balanced Oil-Filled (PBOF) Technology

Abstract

Underwater wet-mateable connectors have been widely used to reduce the cost and the time of installation, maintenance and reconfiguration in many fields, such as the oil and gas (O&G) industry, offshore renewable energy (ORE), and undersea observatories. In the past few years, the authors’ group has made some efforts in developing wet-mateable connectors. This paper presents a methodology for designing and testing a wet-mateable electrical connector. First, an innovative wet-mateable electrical connector with dual-bladder pressure-balanced oil-filled (PBOF) technology is proposed. Second, the generalized equations of differential pressure are derived. Then, a procedure of thermal-electric-structure (TES) coupling simulation is proposed, and a series of finite element analysis (FEA) involving coupled multi-field problems is conducted, including thermal-electric coupling analysis, static structural analysis, and dynamic analysis. Finally, a prototype of the proposed connector is developed successfully, and its electrical performance is verified by the online test in a hydrostatic pressure environment with an ocean depth of 3000 m, which has reached the leading level in China. This paper is the first discloser on wet-mateable connectors in the aspects of design, theory, simulation and testing, which might be helpful to many ocean scientists in developing countries who are technically blocked or could not afford the high cost.

Keywords

• wet-mateable
• electrical connector
• pressure-balanced oil-filled (PBOF)
• coupled multi-field
• prototype test