Design and application of buoy single point mooring system with electro-optical-mechanical (EOM) cable

Abstract

This paper presents the design of a hybrid system named the Mooring Buoys Observation System for Benthic with Electro Optical Mechanical Cable (MBOSBC) for long-term mooring buoy observation in deep oceans. MBOSBC is comprised of three main modules: a surface buoy, a benthic node, and an Electro-Optical-Mechanical (EOM) cable. The Surface buoy provides energy for the entire system, the Benthic node is used to observe scientific phenomena on the seabed, and the Electro-Optical-Mechanical (EOM) cable connects the sea surface buoy and the benthic observation node, serving as the information and power transmission link. This paper provides design criteria for a single point mooring buoy using an EOM cable. The environmental load of the buoy under varying wind, wave, and current conditions is analyzed and the mooring hydrodynamic force of EOM is calculated. After calculating the load of the EOM cable under extreme marine conditions, the hydrodynamic force needed for the system is analyzed. After physically testing the strength of the designed EOM cable, a near-shore test of MBOSBC was carried out, in order to verify that the system has the expected function.