• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.458-467
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• 2016

In this paper, a strongly coupled method for investigating the interaction between a cable and tow-fish is presented. The nodal position finite element method was utilized to analyze the nonlinear cable dynamics, and 6DOF equations of motion were employed to describe the 3D rigid body motion of the tow-fish. Combining cable and tow-fish systems into a single formulation allowed the two nonlinear systems to be strongly coupled into a unified nonlinear system. This strongly coupled system was numerically integrated in the time domain using a predictor/multi-corrector Newmark algorithm. To demonstrate the validity, efficacy, and applicability of the current approach, two different scenarios (virtual and sea trial) were simulated, and the simulation results were validated using the physical plausibility and the sea trial test.