One-piece snap-on foil-shaped low-drag fairing for long underwater cables

Abstract

A one-piece fairing is provided which is a finite length monolithic one-piece, snap-on, foil-shaped, low drag fairing element of streamlined hydrodynamic shape, having an outer wall formed of high strength material, the fairing element being symmetrical about its central longitudinal axis, and adapted to be associated with a plurality of similar such fairing elements in end-to-end abutting relation on a cable. The fairing element comprises: a hollow rounded nose portion within which the cable is adapted to be disposed; a spring tail portion provided by a slit in the tail thereof along the central longitudinal axis; a hollow expandible channel symmetrical about the central longitudinal axis interconnecting the spring tail portion and the hollow nose portion, and through which the cable is adapted to be urged from its entry at the tail portion to its lodging at the hollow rounded nose portion; and an inner wall section of the high strength material spaced from the outer wall of the substantially hollow fairing element by a plurality of ribs of the high strength material. This structure thereby defines the hollow expandible channel and also a double wall section along the flanks of the fairing element between the nose portion and the tail portion.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.