Chris Burgoyne
Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge,
Cambridge, UK
Giuseppe Guimarães
Dept. of Civil Engineering, Pontifical
Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
High strength aramid fibre ropes
have already found several applications in the marine environment. They have
been used as towing ropes and navigation buoy moorings for more than ten years
and, more recently, they have been used to moor a construction ship during the
erection of a guyed tower platform (Riewald, 1986). The interest in this
material for offshore applications has grown considerably over the last years
mainly because of its light weight, high strength, lack of corrosion and ease
of handling.
Among the three basic constructions
of fibre ropes, twisted, braided and parallel-lay, the latter has the highest
strength, highest modulus and best fatigue performance achievable with a
particular fibre. This paper is concerned with a particular parallel-lay, manufactured
by Linear Composites Ltd, commercially known as Parafil. The development of
this rope started in the mid 1960s as a result of a requirement for low weight
non-corrodable cables for mooring deep water platforms across the North
Atlantic (Kingston,
1988). Currently they are being
considered not only for this short of application but also for use in
prestressed concrete, cable stayed bridges, cable roofs, rehabilitation of
structures, etc (Burgoyne, 1988).
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