Response analysis of a submarine cable under fault movement

摘要

Based on the performance of submarine cables in past earthquakes, an analytical method to determine cable performance under seabed fault movement is proposed in this paper. First, common types of earthquake damage to submarine cables are summarized, which include seabed displacement induced by fault movement, submarine landslides and seabed soil liquefaction, etc. The damage is similar to damage observed to buried pipelines following land earthquakes. The Hengchun earthquake of Dec. 26, 2006 is used as a case study. The M7.2 earthquake occurred in the South China Sea at 20:26 Beijing Time, and caused 14 international submarine cables to sever and break. The results show that the proposed method predicts damage similar to that observed in the Hengchun earthquake. Based on parametric studies of the influence of the water depth and the magnitude of the submarine earthquake, countermeasures to prevent damage to submarine cables are proposed.