Modeling and control of tension in Flexible pipe tensile armor manufacturing process

Abstract With the increasing application of flexible pipes in deep-sea operations, higher processing accuracy is required for the individual metal layers of these pipes to withstand greater service loads. In the helical winding production of tensile armor layer, the accuracy of tension control greatly affects the uniformity of steel strip after winding. To ensure tension stability during armored steel strip processing, a tension model for the manufacturing process is proposed. The model predicts the magnitude and trend of tension fluctuations caused by the unwinding device, facilitating the design of a steel strip constant tension control system based on integral separation fuzzy PID algorithm, which can achieve fast convergence of tension when tension fluctuation is large. The effectiveness of the system is verified by steel strip winding experiments. The experimental results confirm the accuracy of the prediction model and the reliability and effectiveness of the designed tension control system. With this control system, the tension fluctuation range is reduced by nearly 40% and the average value of standard deviation of spacing after steel strip winding is reduced by 0.21 mm, demonstrating its potential in improving the manufacturing quality of flexible tube tensile armor layer.