Gravity Anchors Astride Subsea Pipelines Subject to Oscillatory and Combined Steady and Oscillatory Flows

Author(s):  
Xu Zhao ◽  
Liang Cheng ◽  
Ming Zhao ◽  
Hongwei An ◽  
Wei He

This writing presents results of simulating oscillatory and combined steady and oscillatory flows past gravity anchors astride subsea pipelines. It can be considered a companion to a previous numerical study on steady currents past gravity anchors. The gravity anchor system comprises large arch-shaped concrete blocks positioned at intervals astride offshore pipelines, and it is engineered to provide innovative and cost-effective secondary stabilisation for high-capacity gas-transporting pipelines serving in severe metocean conditions, e.g. cyclone-prone offshore areas. A free-settling marine object bottom-seated on the seabed, however, the gravity anchor may subside into scour pits around its base due to locally disturbed flow regimes, imposing integrity risks on the pipe. Also, the effect of gravity anchors on hydrodynamic loading on nearby pipeline lengths is of interest. The present study employed a Petrov-Galerkin finite element method to solve the three-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations in direct numerical simulation. Firstly sinusoidal flow oscillating perpendicularly to the pipe beneath gravity anchors on an immobile bed was simulated at a Keulegan-Carpenter number of 10 and a pipe Reynolds number of 1000. Then, a steady current co-directionally superimposed on the aforementioned oscillatory flow was modelled at a ratio of steady current velocity to oscillatory flow velocity amplitude of 1. With sediment transport capacity related to bed shear stresses, the time-averaged bed shear stress amplification around gravity anchors in oscillatory flow was revealed first, and found to be consistent with laboratory observations of scour patterns. The effect of superimposing steady flow onto oscillatory flow on bed shear stress amplification was then explored. Lastly, hydrodynamic forces on pipelines in the vicinity of gravity anchors were gauged. The present work intends to shed light on the initial seabed responses with regard to the scour process around gravity anchors immersed in the oceanic wave boundary layer, as well as the effect of gravity anchors on hydrodynamic loadings on pipelines.

Author(s):  
Fuyu Zhao ◽  
Terry Griffiths ◽  
Wenwen Shen ◽  
Scott Draper ◽  
Hongwei An ◽  
...  

This paper presents interpretation of the results of 2D CFD modelling using ANSYS Fluent, which has been undertaken for a parametric range of over 200 cases, including over 60 different seabed geometries, pipe diameters and seabed roughnesses as well as a range of steady current, wave and combined wave / current cases. Through analysis of the results including evaluation of seabed shear stress amplification factors compared to far-field ambient values, integration across the seabed of seabed shear stresses and bedload transport potential, the conditions under which sedimentation can be expected are predicted. The results have relevance to improving our understanding of sedimentation (backfilling) around subsea pipelines under live bed conditions, since the presence of shear-stress deficits or shadows leads to enhanced accretion of sediment in the region of a pipeline, even where there is localised amplification of shear stress right next to the pipe. The results are expected to enable better approaches design of subsea pipeline stability on erodible seabeds, or on impermeable rocky beds where veneers of mobile sediment are present.


Author(s):  
Nicholas S. Tavouktsoglou ◽  
John M. Harris ◽  
Richard R. Simons ◽  
Richard J. S. Whitehouse

Offshore gravity foundations are often designed with complex geometries. Such structures interact with the local hydrodynamics and generate enhanced bed shear stresses and flow turbulence capable of scouring the seabed or destabilizing bed armour where deployed. In the present study a novel bed shear stress measurement method has been developed from the camera and laser components of a Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) system. The bed shear stress amplification was mapped out around six models of gravity foundations with different geometries. Tests were repeated for two bed roughness conditions. The structures tested included uniform cylinders, cylindrical base structures and conical base structures. The flow field around the models was also measured using PIV. The results of this study reveal that the conical base structures generate a different hydrodynamic response compared to the other structures. For uniform cylinders the maximum bed shear stress amplification occurs upstream, at an angle of 45° relative to the flow direction, and measurements were found to agree well with numerical results obtained by Roulund et al. (2005). In the case of the cylindrical base structure the maximum amplification occurs upstream at a similar location to the uniform cylinder case. For the conical base structures the maximum amplification of the bed shear stress occurs on the lee side of the structure, with the magnitude dependent on the side slope of the cone. The bed shear stress results were validated against stresses derived from analysis of the flow fields obtained by the PIV measurements performed under the same test conditions. Conclusions from the study are that the structure with the cylindrical base foundation produces the lowest bed shear stress amplification and that an increase in the bed roughness results in an increase in the amplification of the bed shear stress. These findings have direct implications for design of scour protection. In addition the flow reattachment point behind the foundation is dependent on pile Reynolds number (ReD). This suggests that the results of this study may be extrapolated for higher pile Reynolds using the method described in Roulund et al. (2006).


2020 ◽  
pp. 2338-2342
Author(s):  
Malasani Gopichand ◽  
Tapas Kumar Pradhan ◽  
K Murali ◽  
Venu Chandra

2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mongkol Kaewbumrung ◽  
Somsak Orankitjaroen ◽  
Pichit Boonkrong ◽  
Buraskorn Nuntadilok ◽  
Benchawan Wiwatanapataphee

A mathematical model of dispersed bioparticle-blood flow through the stenosed coronary artery under the pulsatile boundary conditions is proposed. Blood is assumed to be an incompressible non-Newtonian fluid and its flow is considered as turbulence described by the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations. Bioparticles are assumed to be spherical shape with the same density as blood, and their translation and rotational motions are governed by Newtonian equations. Impact of particle movement on the blood velocity, the pressure distribution, and the wall shear stress distribution in three different severity degrees of stenosis including 25%, 50%, and 75% are investigated through the numerical simulation using ANSYS 18.2. Increasing degree of stenosis severity results in higher values of the pressure drop and wall shear stresses. The higher level of bioparticle motion directly varies with the pressure drop and wall shear stress. The area of coronary artery with higher density of bioparticles also presents the higher wall shear stress.


Author(s):  
Xiaofeng Xu ◽  
Joon Sang Lee ◽  
R. H. Pletcher

A numerical study was performed to investigate the effects of heating and buoyancy on the turbulent structures and transport in turbulent pipe flow. Isoflux wall boundary conditions with low and high heating were imposed. The compressible filtered Navier-Stokes equations were solved using a second order accurate finite volume method. Low Mach number preconditioning was used to enable the compressible code to work efficiently at low Mach numbers. A dynamic subgrid-scale stress model accounted for the subgrid-scale turbulence. The results showed that strong heating caused distortions of the flow structures resulting in reduction of turbulent intensities, shear stresses, and turbulent heat flux, particularly near the wall. The effect of heating was to raise the mean streamwise velocity in the central region and reduce the velocity near the wall resulting in velocity distributions that resembled laminar profiles for the high heating case.


2004 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Subhasish Dey

An experimental study on critical bed shear-stress for initial movement of non-cohesive sediment particles under a steady-uniform stream flow on a combined lateral (across the flow direction) and longitudinal (streamwise direction) sloping bed is presented. The aim of this paper is to ascertain that the critical bed shear-stress on a combined lateral and longitudinal sloping bed is adequately represented by the product of critical bed shear-stress ratios for lateral and longitudinal sloping beds. Experiments were carried out with closed-conduit flow, in two ducts having a semicircular invert section, with three sizes of sediments. In laboratory flumes, the uniform flow is a difficult – if not impossible – proposition for a steeply sloping channel, and is impossible to obtain in an adversely sloping channel. To avoid this problem, the experiments were conducted with a closed-conduit flow. The critical bed shear-stresses for experimental runs were estimated from side-wall correction. The experimental data agree satisfactorily with the results obtained from the proposed formula.


2006 ◽  
Vol 324-325 ◽  
pp. 563-566 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qing Min Yu ◽  
Zhu Feng Yue ◽  
Yong Shou Liu

In this paper, a plate containing a central hole was used to simulate gas turbine blade with cooling hole. Numerical calculations based on crystal plasticity theory have been performed to study the elastic-plastic stress field near the hole under tension. Two crystallographic orientations [001] and [111] were considered. The distributions of resolved shear stresses and strains of the octahedral slip systems {110}<112> were calculated. The results show that the crystallographic orientation has remarkable influence on both von Mises stress and resolved shear stress distributions. The resolved shear stress distributions around the hole are different between the two orientations, which lead to the different activated slip systems. So the deformed shape of the hole in [001] orientation differs from that in [111] orientation.


Author(s):  
Lucas Konnigk ◽  
Benjamin Torner ◽  
Sebastian Hallier ◽  
Matthias Witte ◽  
Frank-Hendrik Wurm

Adverse events due to flow-induced blood damage remain a serious problem for blood pumps as cardiac support systems. The numerical prediction of blood damage via computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is a helpful tool for the design and optimization of reliable pumps. Blood damage prediction models primarily are based on the acting shear stresses, which are calculated by solving the Navier–Stokes equations on computational grids. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the influence of the spatial discretization and the associated discretization error on the shear stress calculation in a blood pump in comparison to other important flow quantities like the pressure head of the pump. Therefore, CFD analysis using seven unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (URANS) simulations was performed. Two simple stress calculation indicators were applied to estimate the influence of the discretization on the results using an approach to calculate numerical uncertainties, which indicates discretization errors. For the finest grid with 19 × 106 elements, numerical uncertainties up to 20% for shear stresses were determined, while the pressure heads show smaller uncertainties with a maximum of 4.8%. No grid-independent solution for velocity gradient-dependent variables could be obtained on a grid size that is comparable to mesh sizes in state-of-the-art blood pump studies. It can be concluded that the grid size has a major influence on the shear stress calculation, and therefore, the potential blood damage prediction, and that the quantification of this error should always be taken into account.


1998 ◽  
Vol 374 ◽  
pp. 379-405 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. NA ◽  
P. MOIN

A separated turbulent boundary layer over a flat plate was investigated by direct numerical simulation of the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations. A suction-blowing velocity distribution was prescribed along the upper boundary of the computational domain to create an adverse-to-favourable pressure gradient that produces a closed separation bubble. The Reynolds number based on inlet free-stream velocity and momentum thickness is 300. Neither instantaneous detachment nor reattachment points are fixed in space but fluctuate significantly. The mean detachment and reattachment locations determined by three different definitions, i.e. (i) location of 50% forward flow fraction, (ii) mean dividing streamline (ψ=0), (iii) location of zero wall-shear stress (τw=0), are in good agreement. Instantaneous vorticity contours show that the turbulent structures emanating upstream of separation move upwards into the shear layer in the detachment region and then turn around the bubble. The locations of the maximum turbulence intensities as well as Reynolds shear stress occur in the middle of the shear layer. In the detached flow region, Reynolds shear stresses and their gradients are large away from the wall and thus the largest pressure fluctuations are in the middle of the shear layer. Iso-surfaces of negative pressure fluctuations which correspond to the core region of the vortices show that large-scale structures grow in the shear layer and agglomerate. They then impinge on the wall and subsequently convect downstream. The characteristic Strouhal number St=fδ*in/U0 associated with this motion ranges from 0.0025 to 0.01. The kinetic energy budget in the detachment region is very similar to that of a plane mixing layer.


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