Importance

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Abstract

A fairing and a fairing assembly for towed underwater cables is provided, having two different embodiments of fairings. In the first embodiment, each fairing has a flexible nose portion and a substantially rigid tail portion having separable halves, with the connection between the nose portion and the tail portion being by way of a flange at each side at the rear of the nose portion fitting into a channel at the front of each of the half pieces of the tail portion, and with the channel being interrupted by a shear block which is accommodated by a discontinuity in the nose portion flanges. A special arrangement is made having half-length nose portions, and using a flexible link between at least certain ones of adjacent fairings, where the half-length nose portion accommodates a ring secured to the periphery of the cable. The fairings may be grouped either for compression loading against a ring at the bottom of each group, or for tension loading from a ring at the top of each group, whereby a better tow-off characteristic is gained. The second embodiment of fairings comprises an extruded one piece fairing having a high modulus of elasticity with a single nose portion for a plurality of tail portions. The compression ring and a tool for fitting it to the cable are also taught.

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First Claim