Drilling Riser VIV Tests With Prototype Reynolds Numbers

For deep-water riser systems, Vortex Induced Vibrations (VIV) may cause significant fatigue damage. It appears that the knowledge gap of this phenomenon is considerable and this has caused a high level of research activity over the last decades. Small scale model tests are often used to investigate VIV behaviour. However, one substantial uncertainty in applying such results is scaling effects, i.e. differences in VIV response in full scale flow and small scale flow. To (partly) overcome this obstacle, a new innovative VIV test rig was designed and built at MARINTEK to test a rigid full scale riser model. The rigid riser model is mounted vertically and can either be elastically mounted or be given a forced motion. In the present version, the cylinder can only move in the cross-flow (CF) direction and is restricted in the in-line (IL) direction. The paper reports results from a drilling riser VIV experiment where the new rest rig has been used. The overall objective of the work is to study possible VIV suppression to improve operability of retrievable riser systems with auxiliary lines by adding riser fins. These fins are normally used as devices for protection of the auxiliary lines. The test program has recently been completed and analysis is an on-going activity. However, some results can be reported at this stage and more results are planned to be published. A bare riser model was used in a Reynolds number (Rn) scaling effect study. The riser model was elastically mounted and towed over a reduced velocity range around 4 – 10 in two different Rn ranges, 75 000 – 192 000 (subcritical regime) and 347 000 – 553 000 (critical regime). The difference in the displacement amplitude to diameter ratio, A/D, is found to be significant. The elastically mounted riser was also towed with various drilling riser configurations in order to study VIV/galloping responses. One configuration included a slick joint riser model with 6 kill & choke lines; another has added riser fins too. The riser model is based on a specific drilling riser and the kill and choke lines have various diameters and have a non-symmetrical layout. The various riser configurations have also been used in forced motion tests where the towed model has been given a sinusoidal CF motion. Forces have been measured. Determination of the force coefficients is still in progress and is planned to be reported later. Scaling effects appear to be a significant uncertainty and further research on the subject is recommended. The slick joint drilling riser configuration generally increased the displacements compared to displacements of the bare riser model. The drilling riser configuration with protection fins, kill and choke lines generally reduced the displacements compared to displacements of the bare riser model. For both riser systems, tests showed that the response is sensitive to the heading of the current.

Drilling Riser VIV Analysis Using Time Domain Code SimVIV

Drilling risers are often subjected to VIV from ocean currents, which may vary in directions over depth. VIV of drilling riser has commonly been analyzed using frequency domain code. This paper presents an alternative tool of analyzing VIV of drilling riser using time domain code SimVIV. With this tool it is possible to apply currents in varying directions over depth. Measured currents and VIV responses of a drilling riser available in the literature are used in this study. The results of time domain analysis using SimVIV are compared against measured responses. The effect of current directionality over depth on drilling riser VIV response is also analyzed.

Boundaries Influence on the Flow Field Around an Oscillating Sphere

This work analyzes the effects of the interaction between an oscillating sphere and free surface flows through the reconstruction of the flow field around the body and the analysis of the displacements. The experiments were performed in an open water channel, where the sphere had three different boundary conditions in respect to the flow, defined as h* (the ratio between the distance of the sphere upper surface from the free surface and the sphere diameter). A quasi-symmetric condition at h* = 2, with the sphere equally distant from the free surface and the channel bottom, and two conditions of asymmetric bounded flow, one with the sphere located at a distance of 0.003m from the bottom at h* = 3.97 and the other with the sphere close to the free surface at h* = 0, were considered. The sphere was free to move in two directions, streamwise (x) and transverse to the flow (y), and was characterized by values of mass ratio, m* = 1.34 (ratio between the system mass and the displaced fluid mass), and damping ratio, ζ = 0.004. The comparison between the results of the analyzed boundary conditions has shown the strong influence of the free surface on the evolution of the vortex structures downstream the obstacle.

VIV Excitation Competition Between Bare and Buoyant Segments of Flexible Cylinders

This paper addresses a practical problem: “Under which coverage of buoyancy modules, would the Vortex Induced Vibration (VIV) excitation on buoyant segments dominate the response?” This paper explores the excitation competition between bare and buoyant segments of a 38 meter long model riser. The source of data is a recent model test, conducted by SHELL Exploration and Production at the MARINTEK Ocean Basin in Trondheim Norway. A pipe model with five buoyancy configurations was tested. The results of these tests show that (1) the excitation on the bare and buoyant regions could be identified by frequency, because the bare and buoyant regions are associated with two different frequencies due to the different diameters; (2) a new phenomenon was observed; A third frequency in the spectrum is found not to be a multiple of the frequency associated with either bare or buoyancy regions, but the sum of the frequency associated with bare region and twice of the frequency associated with buoyancy region; (3) the contribution of the response at this third frequency to the total amplitude is small; (4) the power dissipated by damping at each excitation frequency is the metric used to determine the winner of excitation competition. For most buoyancy configurations, the excitation on buoyancy regions dominates the VIV response; (5) a formula is proposed to predict the winner of the excitation competition between bare and buoyant segments for a given buoyancy coverage.

Guidelines for CFD Simulations of Spar VIM

Vortex-Induced Motion (VIM), which occurs as a consequence of exposure to strong current such as Loop Current eddies in the Gulf of Mexico, is one of the critical factors in the design of the mooring and riser systems for deepwater offshore structures such as Spars and multi-column Deep Draft Floaters (DDFs). The VIM response can have a significant impact on the fatigue life of mooring and riser components. In particular, Steel Catenary Risers (SCRs) suspended from the floater can be sensitive to VIM-induced fatigue at their mudline touchdown points. Industry currently relies on scaled model testing to determine VIM for design. However, scaled model tests are limited in their ability to represent VIM for the full scale structure since they are generally not able to represent the full scale Reynolds number and also cannot fully represent waves effects, nonlinear mooring system behavior or sheared and unsteady currents. The use of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to simulate VIM can more realistically represent the full scale Reynolds number, waves effects, mooring system, and ocean currents than scaled physical model tests. This paper describes a set of VIM CFD simulations for a Spar hard tank with appurtenances and their comparison against a high quality scaled model test. The test data showed considerable sensitivity to heading angle relative to the incident flow as well as to reduced velocity. The simulated VIM-induced sway motion was compared against the model test data for different reduced velocities (Vm) and Spar headings. Agreement between CFD and model test VIM-induced sway motion was within 9% over the full range of Vm and headings. Use of the Improved Delayed Detached Eddy Simulation (IDDES, Shur et al 2008) turbulence model gives the best agreement with the model test measurements. Guidelines are provided for meshing and time step/solver setting selection.

Numerical Simulation of Flows Past Partially-Submerged Horizontal Circular Cylinders in Free Surface Waves

Two-dimensional (2D) numerical simulations are performed to investigate the flows past partially-submerged circular cylinders in free surface waves. The 2D simulations are carried out by solving the Unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) equations with the k-ω turbulence model. The level set method is employed to model the free-surface waves. Validation studies of a numerical wave tank have been performed by comparing the numerical results with the analytical results obtained from the linear-wave theory. Wave forces on the partially-submerged cylinders have been calculated numerically and compared with the published theoretical and experimental data under regular-wave conditions. The free-surface elevations around the cylinders have been investigated and discussed.

FSI Methodology for Analyzing VIV on Subsea Piping Components With Practical Boundary Conditions

A general assumption in performing vortex-induced vibration (VIV) analysis of pipeline free spans is both ends of the free span are fixed and/or pinned in order to simplify computational simulations; however, DNV Recommended Practice F105 states that these boundary conditions must adequately represent the pipe-soil interaction and the continuality of the pipeline. A computational methodology is developed to determine the effects of pip-soil interaction at the ends of a free span. Three-dimensional fluid-structure interaction (FSI) simulations are performed by coupling the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) codes from STAR-CCM+ with the finite element analysis (FEA) codes from ABAQUS. These FSI simulations in combination with separate coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian (CEL) simulations are modeled to mimic real word conditions by setting up boundary conditions to factor in the effects of pipe-soil interaction at the ends of the span. These simulations show a mitigation of overall stresses to the free spans; as a result, the integration of pipe-soil interaction in free span assessment may prove cost effective in the prevention of unnecessary corrective action.

VIV of Flexible Cylinder in Oscillatory Flow

VIV in oscillatory flow is experimentally investigated in the ocean basin. The flexible test cylinder was forced to harmonically oscillate in various combinations of amplitude and period. VIV responses at cross flow direction are investigated using modal decomposition and wavelet transformation. The results show that VIV in oscillatory flow is quite different from that in steady flow; novel features such as ‘intermittent VIV’, amplitude modulation, mode transition are observed. Moreover, a VIV developing process including “Building-Up”, “Lock-In” and “Dying-Out” in oscillatory flow, is further proposed and analyzed.

Particle Based Numerical Analysis of Green Water on FPSO Deck

The green water phenomenon is boarding of sea water onto the deck due to high amplitude waves, which can cause several damages to the equipment on deck. In the present paper the green water phenomenon on three-dimensional models is analyzed using the Moving Particles Semi-Implicit Method (MPS), a fully lagrangian method for incompressible flow. This work is focused on the validation of the method comparing the numerical results with experimental results for green water on reduced scale models. The pressure on sensors over the deck of the models shows good agreement with experimental data.

Wake-Induced Vibration (WIV) of Two Tandem Pre-Tensioned Flexible Cylinders

It is believed that investigations on flow around pairs of cylinders can provide a better understanding of the interference effects than the cases involving larger numbers of cylinders. Studies that deal with the dynamic responses of multiple flexible cylinders with low mass ratios and high aspect ratios are few because of the complexities in the responses. In this paper, the effects of wake interference on the dynamic responses of two pre-tensioned flexible cylinders in tandem arrangement subjected to uniform cross-flow are investigated. The analysis results of the tandem cylinders are presented and compared with an isolated flexible cylinder. Two flexible cylinders of the same size, properties, and pretensions were tested at four different centre-to-centre separation distances, namely, 2.75, 5.5, 8.25 and 11 diameters. Reynolds number range is from 1400 to 20000 (subcritical regime). The aspect ratio of the cylinders is 162 (length over diameter). Mass ratio (cylinders mass over displaced water) is 1.17. The amplitude ratio of the CF vibration of the downstream cylinder, IL deflections of both cylinders, frequency responses in both CF and inline (IL) directions were analyzed. For all the examined separation distances, the downstream cylinder does not show build-up of upper branch (within the lock-in region of the classical VIV of the isolated cylinder). The initial distance between the tandem cylinders cannot remain constant. The distance decreases with reduced velocity because of the unequal IL deflection of tandem cylinders. From the CF frequency response of the lift (transverse) force of downstream cylinder, the highest vibration amplitude at all the separation distances occurs whenever their frequencies transitioned into second modal value. The frequency responses of the upstream cylinder cannot be greatly affected by the downstream cylinder even for small separations in contrast to the downstream cylinder.