Long-term abrasion and corrosion damage to the Hawaii deep water power cable

Summary form only given. A 30 kV deep-sea power cable is being designed and tested for possible deployment between the islands of Oahu and Hawaii. The authors evaluate literature data and corrosion-test results for both armor wire samples and prototype cable specimens exposed in both surface and deep ocean Hawaiian waters. The results are combined with abrasion and friction data for armor wire-lava combinations to develop an estimate of the expected worst-case damage in a 30-year design life. According to this estimate, the greatest damage will occur for a cable catenary which has a contact load of 100 kg at midpoint, a corresponding friction-limited excursion of 0.38 m and a 30-year distance of travel over the rock of 33 km. Here, the expected wear is 7 mm and general corrosion is 2 mm, leaving about 3 mm before the rock face comes in contact with the lead sheath. On this basis, it is concluded that the cable most probably will survive damage due to abrasion and corrosion