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Ocean Engineering

# Vertical Riser VIV Simulation in Uniform Current

[+] Author and Article Information
Kevin Huang, Hamn-Ching Chen

Department of Civil Engineering, Ocean Engineering Program, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843

Chia-Rong Chen

Department of Mathematics, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843

J. Offshore Mech. Arct. Eng 132(3), 031101 (Mar 17, 2010) (10 pages) doi:10.1115/1.4000498 History: Received February 19, 2009; Revised September 17, 2009; Published March 17, 2010; Online March 17, 2010

## Abstract

Recently, some riser vortex-induced vibrations (VIVs) experimental data have been made publicly available (oe.mit.edu/VIV/) including a 10 m riser VIV experiment performed by Marintek, Trondheim, Norway, and donated by ExxonMobil URC, Houston, TX, USA. This paper presents our numerical simulation results for this 10 m riser and the comparisons with the experimental results in uniform current. The riser was made of a 10 m brass pipe with an outer diameter of 0.02 m $(L/D=482)$ and a mass ratio of 1.75. The riser was positioned vertically with top tension of 817 N and pinned at its two ends to the test rig. Rotating the rig in the wave tank would simulate the uniform current. In the present numerical simulation the riser’s ends were pinned to the ground and a uniform far field incoming current was imposed. The riser and its surrounding fluid were discretized using $1.5×106$ elements. The flow field is solved using an unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) numerical method in conjunction with a chimera domain decomposition approach with overset grids. The riser is also discretized into 250 segments. Its motion is predicted through a tensioned beam motion equation with external force obtained by integrating viscous and pressure loads on the riser surface. Then the critical parameters including riser VIV amplitude (a) to the riser outer diameter (D) ratio (a/D), vorticity contours, and motion trajectories were processed. The same parameters for the experimental data were also processed since these data sets are in “raw time-histories” format. Finally, comparisons are made and conclusions are drawn. The present numerical method predicts similar dominant modes and amplitudes as the experiment. It is also shown that the cross flow VIV in the riser top section is not symmetric to that of the bottom section. One end has considerably higher cross flow vibrations than the other end, which is due to the nondominant modal vibrations in both in-line and cross flow directions. The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation results also agree with the experimental results very well on the riser vibrating pattern and higher harmonics response. The higher harmonics were studied and it is found that they are related to the lift coefficients, hence the vortex shedding patterns. It is concluded that the present CFD approach is able to provide reasonable results and is suitable for 3D riser VIV analysis in deepwater and complex current conditions.

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## Figures

Figure 1

Data grids at x/L=constant

Figure 2

Grid details on riser surface and overlapping region

Figure 3

Data grids with riser deflection (only three layers are shown for clarity)

Figure 4

Vortex shedding evolution—left: U=0.42 m/s and right: U=0.84 m/s

Figure 5

Vortex contour—top: U=0.42 m/s and bottom: U=0.84 m/s

Figure 6

Riser deflection time history, x/L=0.5

Figure 7

Riser CF response (U=0.42 m/s)

Figure 8

Riser CF response (U=0.84 m/s)

Figure 9

Cross flow VIV rms a/D, U max=0.42 m/s

Figure 10

Cross flow VIV rms a/D, U max=0.84 m/s

Figure 11

Riser motion trajectory comparison (CFD)

Figure 12

Riser motion trajectory comparison (experimental data)

Figure 13

Lift coefficient (U=0.42 m/s,  x/L=0.3)

Figure 14

Lift coefficient (U=0.42 m/s,  x/L=0.5)

Figure 15

Lift coefficient (U=0.84 m/s,  x/L=0.3)

Figure 16

Lift coefficient (U=0.84 m/s,  x/L=0.5)

Figure 17

CF motion PSD (experiment 1105)

Figure 18

CF motion PSD (FANS, U=0.42 m/s)

Figure 19

CF motion PSD (experiment 1108, U=0.84 m/s)

Figure 20

CF motion PSD (FANS, U=0.84 m/s)

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