SNW HT Sea Trial Paper Rev2

HENGTONG MARINE CABLE SYSTEMS
Challenges in Completing an International Telecom Cable System Sea Trial
by Dr Jerry Brown, Xu Rendong, Sun Guilin, Sun Xiaohua, Hao Changji, Xu Guoxiang, Jiang Yin, Zhang Chao
Hengtong Marine Cable Systems
1. Introduction:
China has a rapidly developing submarine cable system manufacturing industry which
operates in a healthy competitive manner. Subsea cables can fall into several different
system product streams including relatively standard products for long haul telecoms
projects (the subject of this paper) and customised products for the Oil & Gas, Scientific
Observation Systems, Defence applications and HV subsea cables. While much of the
Telecoms product has been sold in the domestic market, Hengtong Marine has broken into
the International Market by addressing client concerns over quality and now has a track
record for deployed overseas systems. This has been achieved in part by completing an
offshore cable system sea trial, which is a requirement of the cable system qualification to
ITU-T G-976 & ITU-T G.972 standards. The requirement for a sea trial is a barrier which
every cable system producer has to address to achieve international sales. Hengtong
Marine is moving forward to promote and improve the image of Global Quality from
China.
2. Different Products, Different Standards:
At Hengtong Marine Cable Systems, our product portfolio covers the following
2.1 Subsea Telecoms Systems. These use relatively standard designs of long haul optical
telecom cables (both repeatered & un-repeatered). These products generally cover
5 or 6 cable types (Rock Armour, Double Armour, Single Armour, Single Armour
Light, Lightweight Protected & Lightweight Cables) which are manufactured and
qualified to ITU-T G-976 & ITU-T G.972 standards. The qualification extends to
include the integration of cable joints, optical amplifier units, branching units and
other cable accessories which are required to build cable systems. As part of this
Address No 8 Tongda Road, Changshu Economic Tel0512-52266895 Fax0512-52266802
Development ZoneJiangsu Provence, China
Websitewww.hengtongmarine.com Postcode215537

system qualification process, and usually before international clients will purchase a
cable system, a sea trial deployment & recovery of the system components is the
last step to be performed to verify the products are fit for purpose. This last step of
the qualification process forms the main theme of this paper.
2.2 Customised cable system solutions including specialised cable accessories for the Oil
& Gas Industry. These types of products are generally designed and manufactured
to client specifications, including ISO 13628-5 API 17E & DNV standards and can
involve power, optical, copper data cable units together with high & low pressure
tubing lines. As the products are customised to clients specifications, each project
requires a unique design solution which is not sea trialled. The products are verified
as suitable for operational use by extensive design calculations, computer modelling
of deployment, operational, overload and repair conditions. The products are also
extensively tested onshore and undergo a comprehensive Factory Acceptance Test.
To meet these extensive requirements Hengtong Marine has invested in a R&D Test
Centre which has been constructed to match or exceed the capabilities of other
international subsea cable test facilities. This facility is available for use by other
companies.
2.3 Customised cable system solutions including specialised cable accessories for
Scientific Observation Networks. This suite of products is handled in a similar way to
Oil & Gas products described in point 2.2 above. The products generally incorporate
multiple power cores and optical units in a customised design to meet project
requirements. Extensive modelling, design calculations & onshore testing of these
products is required. No sea trial of products is required.


2.4 Customised system solutions for the Defence Industry. Severe restrictions on what
can be said regarding these products, but they also follow points 2.2 & 2.3 above.
Generally, no sea trial of products is required.
2.5 HV Subsea Power Cables. Products have been developed for offshore wind farm
array cables and export cables, together with interconnector cables. Cables are
designed and qualified by Type Testing and certified by internationally recognised
bodies. Generally, no sea trial of products is required.
As can be seen one of the key differences between relatively standard subsea telecom
products and the other customised industry solutions is the requirement for a
comprehensive sea trial.
3. Designing an Offshore Sea Trial to meet International Expectations
There are many things to consider when designing a sea trial, as the last stage in the cable
system qualification. The following are probably some of the key points for to be
considered when planning the sea trial activity. Each of these items will now be discussed
briefly.
3.1 What marine operations to sea trial: The key marine operations which should be
demonstrated during the sea trial include
3.1.1 armoured cable burial using an industry recognised cable plough. This will cover
the plough launch operation, deploying the plough on the cable & lowering to
the seabed. The grading into the seabed of the plough share & burial of cable,
joints and optical amplifier units. After completion of burial, the recovery of the
plough back to the cable ship followed by the recovery of the cable system back
on-board.
3.1.2 Surface lay (deployment) of lightweight cables, joints and optical amplifiers with
bottom slack control and cable recovery. This trial will show that cables can be
handled through the linear cable engine for deployment and through the Cable
Drum Engine for recovery operations.
3.1.3 Surface lay (deployment) of a Branching Unit (BU), with three cable legs
attached. This trial verifies that the single leg cable (Leg A) can be used to
support the BU and the two branched cables (Legs B & C) during deployment &

recovery operations. The deployment will demonstrate that the BU will not spin
and twist Legs B&C during deployment, due to the cable torsional characteristics
of Leg A. A worst case scenario is the deployment and recovery of a BU in deep
water using LW cable (where cable tensions will be much closer to the cable
NTTS), rather than an armoured BU in shallow water, where there is a much
larger factor of safety over cable working tensions.
The relative size and shape of Cable Joints, Repeaters and Branching Units
3.2 Sea Trial Location & water depth: The selection of the sea trial location is critical in
that it can affect permits & permissions to operate and transit distance from Port.
An open exposed location will give a good test of products (dynamic tension
variation due to swell and waves), at the risk of weather delays, while a sheltered
location will provide calmer seas (relatively steady tensions) and low risk of weather
delays. To be a realistic sea trial for international clients the selected location should
tend to be open and exposed, as this will offer a more severe test of the cable
system. The water depth will dictate the cable tensions applied to the cables.
Hengtong Marine chose to complete a 5000m water depth surface lay trial, a 4000m
water depth Branching Unit trial and a 500m water depth plough burial trial.
3.3 Sea trial seabed survey: Is it necessary to complete a full bathymetric and plough
burial assessment survey of the sea trial area? This would be a costly exercise both
in terms of timescales (separate mobilisation in advance of the system sea trials) and
also costs incurred. The survey requirements will also be influenced to a great
extent by the marine installer selected for the trials. For the Hengtong Marine Sea


trials the marine installer selected was satisfied to carry out an onsite sounding run
to determine the seabed profile (slopes) and water depth (in deep water) and to
select a separate location for ploughing operations close to existing in service
international systems where geophysical seabed parameters where know, and cable
burial could be achieved (while respecting the International Cable Protection
Committee (ICPC) operational recommendations).
3.4 Timing of the sea trial, weather considerations: Some cable operations are more
weather sensitive than others, for example plough burial (launch & recovery
operations) are much more weather sensitive (vessel motion) than deep water
surface lay operations. There is little point in completing the sea trial when weather
conditions are perfect, as the cable system products will not see a realistic test of
actual marine deployment conditions & the trial results could be open to criticism by
future clients. Likewise, it is pointless to select a time window when weather
conditions are so severe that no cable work can be achieved (and the cable ship is on
downtime due to weather delays). At Hengtong Marine we waited for a reasonable
time period which was considered early in the cable working season, where the risk
of some weather delays was expected, but this was tempered by the requirement to
achieve a good dynamic test of the cable system products.
3.5 Duration of sea trial, one operation or several separate trials? It is possible to split
the plough burial trials and the surface lay trials into two separate operations and to
take advantage of vessel availability or different geographical locations. Hengtong
decided to complete all trials from the same cable-ship platform and to mobilise all
personnel, test equipment and cable systems at one time from the Hengtong Marine
Port in Changshu, China.
3.6 Which Cable Types and lengths of cable: Sufficient cable lengths should be supplied
to allow the cable ship to deploy the system safely, using industry standard cable
working procedures. The system cable should be a mix of cable types, including in-
line transitions, cable joints and bodies.
3.6.1 For surface lay operations there should be sufficient cable length to allow the
cable ship to generate a steady state cable deployment catenary in surface lay
mode and to control the cable slack deployed. The distance between optical
amplifier bodies should be planned so that one body is on the seabed, before the
next body is deployed from the cable-ship.


3.6.2 For branching unit deployment, sufficient lengths of cable, should be provided to
allow cables to be laid & buoyed off, picked up and for offshore shipboard joints
to be made, with system integration the Branching unit on-board the cable ship.
3.6.3 For Plough burial of cables, the armoured cables should be sufficiently long to
allow the plough to be launched from the vessel without any joints or other
bodies being deployed through the plough during this process. The selected
water depth for this operation will also have a major influence on cable lengths
required.
3.7 Which Optical Fibre types and number: The cable used on the sea trial should
incorporate a wide range of fibre types (different suppliers and specifications) and
fibre counts. The Hengtong Marine sea trial used 5 types of optical fibres from 3
suppliers, including the Hengtong G654 & G652D fibres, and cables with fibre counts
ranging from 8, 16 and 24 fibres.
Hengtong Marine Fibre In Metal Tube (FIMT) production line
3.8 Which cable features & repairs to be included: The sea trial operation is an excellent
opportunity to include some standard cable features, splices and repairs (which have
already passed land based testing as part of the qualification process). High strength
fibre splicing, in-line tube joints, copper weld repairs, inner armour wires welds,
insulation repairs (heat shrink and moulded repairs), outer armour wire welds and
inline cable transitions should all be sea trialled.
3.9 Location and type of cable joints: The location of cable joints should be carefully
selected so as not to affect marine deployment operations (such as planned plough
launch activity, or planned plough recovery positions). Most clients will use the
Universal Cable Joint for system maintenance so they usually expect to see this type
of joint in the sea trial, together with any supplier propriety factory cable joint
designs.


Stages in the assembly & build of a Universal Cable Joint
3.10 Location and type of optical amplifier housings: It is important to ensure that
the optical amplifier housings used in future system projects are included in the sea
trial. Hengtong Marine selected Huawei Marine Networks to supply the optical
amplifier housings and incorporated two different amplifier housing designs in the
sea trial. Both the HMN R1 2 fibre pair unit and the HMN R2 6 fibre pair unit were
incorporated into the lightweight surface lay and armoured cable plough burial trials
(4 optical amplifier housings in total). UJs and UQJs cable joints were also included
for verification of land based testing carried out by the UJ Consortium.
3.11 Selection of an internationally recognised authority to witness the sea trial:

To ensure that an unbiased record events of sea trial operations was maintained it is
critical that an independent industry expert is engaged to witness all marine
operations, from system loading to system discharge back ashore after all trials have
been completed. Hengtong Marine Selected Captain David Foster, a former cable
ship commander and recognised international cable expert, with more than 40
years experience of system deployments and repair operations.
3.12 Cable loading logistics (single line or twin line): To achieve competitive
system load out speeds and timescales, it is a key requirement to minimise cable
ship or cable freighter time alongside the cable factory Port. One method of
achieving this objective is to utilise twin line loading. This should be included as part
of the sea trial plan.
3.13 Cable deployment speeds and tensions: Marine operations should be

planned to show that products can be handled, deployed & recovered to industry
standard deployment speeds and recovered safely within acceptable cable handling
parameters (NTTS, NOTS, NPTS). This requirement impacts the sea trial design
including cable lengths, selection of water depth at trials location etc.

3.14 Vessel standby times (simulating repair times): Another key requirement is
for the cable ship to stand to the cable for a period to allow testing and for cable
jointing during repair operations. Under these conditions the cable pay-out is
stopped & the cable is suspended from the cable ship, subjected to dynamic cable
tensions for a prolonged period of time. During the Hengtong Marine sea trial all
cable system trials were subjected to this requirement, with holding periods of 6
hours (testing) and 24 hours (for Branching Unit integration & jointing).
3.15 Cable recovery speeds and tensions: Realistic cable recovery speeds to verify
operations can be completed within cable operating parameters (NTTS, NOTS,
NPTS).
3.16 Re-use of cables: Most sea trials would use newly manufactured cables and
deploy & recover the system once. At Hengtong marine we like to do things
differently. It was decided to re-use the LW cable from the 5000m water depth trial,
and reconfigure the cables to complete the Branching Unit (BU) 4000m water depth
trial.
3.16.1 The BU trial is a more severe test of the LW cable as the single Leg A has to
support the weight of the Branching Unit and the other two cable Legs B&C,
effectively supporting more than 8000m of cable! Hengtong decided to proceed
in this manner to verify the robust cable construction & ability to re-use cables.
This test was successful with the re-used LW cable testing good for optical &
electrical parameters and with no mechanical degradation or damage.
3.16.2 For the armoured cable plough burial trial in normal operations the plough is
normally launched on DA or SA cable just once and recovered on a fresh length
of cable. Once again Hengtong Marine chose to demonstrate the robust cable
construction by launching & recovering the plough on the smallest armoured SAL
cable, not just once but 5 times on the same length of cable! This repeated
launch & recovery was to simulate real life problems where plough faults can
occur and the plough dive has to be stopped & recovered to deck for repair. This
was successfully demonstrated without any mechanical, electrical or optical
degradation.


3.17 Use of international industry standard cable ships and cable handling
equipment and procedures: It is important to select a cable ship equipped with
standard international cable equipment and which has a successful track record
deploying & repairing international optical cable systems. This confirms that new
products can be handled using standard procedures and equipment, without
modifications.
3.18 On-board cable system testing parameters & limits during offshore
operations: The selection of parameters to test during the trial is essential to
demonstrate that the cable system operates correctly and within specification. The
cable insulation resistance, conductor resistance, optical fibre attenuation, PMD,
output optical power and stability should all be monitored & recorded, during
deployment, standby time and recovery operations.
3.19 System unloading (discharge ashore): After the marine operations are
complete and the cable ship returns to Port the cable systems should be unloaded to
avoid damage and to respect the cable handling parameters (tension, bend radius
and abrasion).
3.20 Post sea trial cable examination of cables, joints and Optical Amplifier Units:
A detailed investigation, re-testing (optical, electrical & mechanical) and dissection
of cables, joints and Optical Amplifier Units is required to demonstrate that the
products have not degraded in any way due to the loading, marine operations or
discharge of cables back ashore. This is the final quality check to verify products are
of the highest manufacturing standard and suitable for use in subsea systems.
4. Analysis of the Hengtong Marine HORC & HOUC cable sea trial
The Sea Trial planning actually started more than 1 year before implementation. The cable
specifications and fiber types were carefully selected and various sea trial locations were
considered. Once the water depths for each of the sea trials was agreed, cable manufacture
commenced using a number of different production lines with all cable being completed
several months prior to the trials load out date.


Hengtong Marine Composite Conductor Production Lines
Ultimately it was decided to integrate the cable systems using the Hengtong Marine
System Integration & Test Area and utilize twin line loading to verify the load out gantry
to Hengtong Port.
Cable System Jointing In Progress on the Integration Area
Hengtong Marine System Integration Area with subsea plant & cable bights


When load out operations commenced on 11 April 2017, the Hengtong HV company were
also loading out products, so the gantry system & Port successfully demonstrated triple line
load outs, showing no conflict been the two cable factories onsite.
Hengtong Marine Port & Gantry, with triple line loading in progress (2 x Telecom, 1 x HV)
The marine portion of the sea trial operation covered 30 days of activity over the timeline
from 2017.4.11 to 2017.5.10
Hengtong Marine HOUC-1 un-repeatered cable and HORC-1 repeatered cable products were
integrated with HMN R1 (2 fiber pair) repeaters & R2 (6 fiber pair) repeaters and Universal
Joints & Universal Quick Joints.
Integration of BU, R1 Repeater, R2 Repeater and cable joints into the sea trail cable systems
SBSS was selected as the preferred marine operator and the CS Fu Hai was mobilized to
Hengtong Port for the project, equipped with a SMD MD3 cable burial plough capable of 2m
to 3m burial into the seabed.


Three sea trial locations were selected for the trials, generally lying to the South and South
East of Japan, in an open exposed Pacific Ocean location.
The 5000m HORC Repeatered system trial was located in the area 2801'N 13458E
The 4000m HORC branching unit system trial was located at 2815'N 13312E
The 500m HOUC & HORC plough burial trials were located in the area 2833'N 13043'E
Four separate sea trial systems were manufactured specifically for the sea trials
5000m water depth HORC-1 repeatered system (2fp & 6fp RPTs, 2 x UJs) using
35.830 kms LW & LWP cables


4000m water depth HORC-1 Branching Unit system (PSBU, 5 x UJs) using 25.640 kms
re-used LW & LWP cables from the 5000m trial
500m water depth HORC-1 cable plough trial (2fp & 6fp RPTs, 2 x UJs) using 10.350
kms SAL, SA and DA cables


MD3 Plough recovery and Plough Graphic Control Screen showing cable burial
500m water depth HOUC-1 un-repeatered cable plough burial trial (3 x UQJs) using
6.890 kms SAL, SA and DA cables
All four sea trial systems were deployed and recovered successfully, with good cable
handling characteristics and all measured cable parameters within specifications. The cable
electrical and optical test values remained stable throughout the trials, with some
improvement in values when the cable systems were deployed on the sea bed (due to lower
seabed temperature).


Some valuable lessons can be learned from the timeline of the 30-day duration sea trial as
summarized in the following Table
Item Activity Duration %
1 Vessel Mobilisation, Cable System Loading / Unloading, Test 4 days 13.3 %

Equipment, Branching Unit, Jointing Kits, various cable gear,
personnel
2 Transits from / to Hengtong Port to work locations 6 days 20 .0 %
3 Weather delays (mostly related to ploughing & Branching 7 days 23.3 %

Unit deployment) due to open exposed work location
4 Cable Work onsite 11 days 36.7 %
5 Cable System testing 2 days 6.7 %
Total duration 30 days 100 %
As with any marine operation the time analysis reveals that transits and weather delays are
the most costly non-productive periods of time spent offshore, but this is the required
penalty to prove the cable system product performance in realistic conditions close to the
limits of commercial cable deployment and repair conditions.


Conclusions
Hengtong Marine has succeeded in demonstrating our HOUC and HORC telecom cable
products robust structure and excellent handling capabilities using an industry standard
cable ship without modifications to equipment or procedures. This activity completes the
last step in the qualification of products for the global international market, and
demonstrates Hengtong Marines objective of delivering Global Quality from China.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank HMN and SBSS for excellent co-operation and flexibility in
making this sea trial a success and creating a WinWinWin result for everyone involved.
A special thanks to the Hengtong Marine Sea Trial team, comprised of members from
Production, Quality, Engineering Services, R&D and Fibre Manufacturing for all their efforts
offshore 24/7 and also to Captain David Foster the Independent Marine Observer.


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HENGTONG MARINE CABLE SYSTEMS

Challenges in Completing an International Telecom Cable System Sea Trial

Hengtong Marine Cable Systems

2. Different Products, Different Standards:

HENGTONG MARINE CABLE SYSTEMS

Address No 8 Tongda Road, Changshu Economic Tel0512-52266895 Fax0512-52266802

HENGTONG MARINE CABLE SYSTEMS

3. Designing an Offshore Sea Trial to meet International Expectations

HENGTONG MARINE CABLE SYSTEMS

Address No 8 Tongda Road, Changshu Economic Tel0512-52266895 Fax0512-52266802

HENGTONG MARINE CABLE SYSTEMS

Address No 8 Tongda Road, Changshu Economic Tel0512-52266895 Fax0512-52266802

HENGTONG MARINE CABLE SYSTEMS

Hengtong Marine Fibre In Metal Tube (FIMT) production line

Address No 8 Tongda Road, Changshu Economic Tel0512-52266895 Fax0512-52266802

HENGTONG MARINE CABLE SYSTEMS

Stages in the assembly & build of a Universal Cable Joint

3.11 Selection of an internationally recognised authority to witness the sea trial:

3.13 Cable deployment speeds and tensions: Marine operations should be

HENGTONG MARINE CABLE SYSTEMS

Address No 8 Tongda Road, Changshu Economic Tel0512-52266895 Fax0512-52266802

HENGTONG MARINE CABLE SYSTEMS

Address No 8 Tongda Road, Changshu Economic Tel0512-52266895 Fax0512-52266802

HENGTONG MARINE CABLE SYSTEMS

Hengtong Marine Composite Conductor Production Lines

Cable System Jointing In Progress on the Integration Area

Address No 8 Tongda Road, Changshu Economic Tel0512-52266895 Fax0512-52266802

HENGTONG MARINE CABLE SYSTEMS

Address No 8 Tongda Road, Changshu Economic Tel0512-52266895 Fax0512-52266802

HENGTONG MARINE CABLE SYSTEMS

Address No 8 Tongda Road, Changshu Economic Tel0512-52266895 Fax0512-52266802

HENGTONG MARINE CABLE SYSTEMS

Address No 8 Tongda Road, Changshu Economic Tel0512-52266895 Fax0512-52266802

HENGTONG MARINE CABLE SYSTEMS

Address No 8 Tongda Road, Changshu Economic Tel0512-52266895 Fax0512-52266802

HENGTONG MARINE CABLE SYSTEMS

Item Activity Duration %

1 Vessel Mobilisation, Cable System Loading / Unloading, Test 4 days 13.3 %

2 Transits from / to Hengtong Port to work locations 6 days 20 .0 %

3 Weather delays (mostly related to ploughing & Branching 7 days 23.3 %

4 Cable Work onsite 11 days 36.7 %

5 Cable System testing 2 days 6.7 %

Total duration 30 days 100 %

Address No 8 Tongda Road, Changshu Economic Tel0512-52266895 Fax0512-52266802

HENGTONG MARINE CABLE SYSTEMS

Address No 8 Tongda Road, Changshu Economic Tel0512-52266895 Fax0512-52266802

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