Next Generation of Underwater Wet-Mate Electrical Connectors

With the development of society, people's demand for oil and gas resources is gradually rising, and more and more countries are putting their eyes on the ocean to exploit oil and gas resources, which plays a driving role in the development of subsea production systems. Subsea production system has experienced the transformation from all-hydraulic to electro-hydraulic composite type, and the future development trend is all-electric type. The transmission of electrical energy and the conduction of electrical signals between the devices of the all-electric subsea production system cannot be achieved without the underwater electrical connectors, which are the medium for establishing the electrical connection between the underwater devices and are one of the core devices of the all-electric subsea production system. In this paper, the key technologies of underwater wet-mate electrical connectors are sorted out, the overall program of the new generation underwater wet-mate electrical connectors are introduced, the key parts of the male and female connectors are analyzed and calculated by Lame formula, the key parts are strength checked by distortion energy theory, and the key parts are simulated and analyzed by Workbench software of ANSYS. The underwater wet-mate electrical connectors passed electrical testing and high pressure chamber testing.