A Case Study of Completely Buried Wind-Power Cable Detection Using 3D Acoustic Imaging

As offshore wind power is renewable energy produced through the installation and operation of large-scale offshore infrastructure, risk management is crucial in power platforms. Safety accidents caused by external factors during the operation of submarine power cables can lead to enormous costs, thus necessitating the monitoring of burial depth and route information of cables. In this study, we developed a 3D acoustic imaging method that obtains information on the route and depth of completely buried power cables. An acoustic source-based engineering ocean seismic 3D (EOS3D) system has been used to detect buried objects in the subsurface because conventional sonars, such as multi-beam echo sounder (MBES) and side-scan sonar (SSS), which are used to analyze seafloor characteristics, have limitations in detecting completely buried cables in the subsurface. Field data were obtained as 8-channel data using a chirp source (2–8 kHz) designed to obtain a 25 × 25 cm horizontal spatial resolution from real-time kinematic (RTK) positioning. The image stack method was proposed to effectively detect buried cables, with the vertical gradient analyzed using signals decomposed into representative bin sizes and low-mid-high-frequency components. The acoustic anomalies of buried objects, identified as export cables and protectors, were processed into images using the proposed image stack method and gradient analysis. This case study of buried wind power cables using 3D acoustic imaging could be utilized in burial assessment survey (BAS)-data acquisition, processing/analysis processes, and operation and management of buried cables.