Riser VIV and its numerical simulation

Kevin Huang
(DMAR Engineering Inc.HoustonTexas 77094USA)

AbstractThis paper summarizes some of the typical riser vortex-induced vibration (VIV) problems in subsea oil
and gas developmentsand presents the corresponding computational fluid dynamics (CFD) time domain simula-
tion results to address these problems. Firstthe CFD time domain simulation approach was applied to analyze the
wake field behind a stationary cylinder and a vibrating cylinder. Then a vertical riser VIV response under uniform
current was studied. The VIV response time histories revealed some valuable clues that could lead to explanation
of the higher harmonics. After thata vertical riser VIV response under shear current was investigated. A 3 000 ft
(1 ft=0.304 8 m) water depth top tensioned riser was sizedand its VIV responses under uniform and shear current
were studied. Then this paper continues to discuss one catenary flexible riser VIV response during normal lay.
Lastthe time domain simulation approach was applied to a partially submerged flexible jumperto study the
jumper VIV behaviorand dynamic motion envelopes. It was demonstrated that the time domain simulation ap-
proach is able to disclose details of the flow fieldvortex shedding patternand riser dynamic behaviorand han-
dle different types of risers under different type of currents.
Key wordsriserpipelineflexiblecylinderVIVnumerical simulationCFD

1 Introduction
Deepwater oil and gas exploration and develop-
ments have been moving fast toward increasingly
deeper water depthi.e. 3 000 m in Gulf of Mexico.
Majority of the subsea wells are tied back to a surface
platform through long risersincluding steel catenary
risersflexible risersflexible jumpersfree standing
risersbundled risersor top tensioned risers [1- 3]. For
riser system fatigue designone of the challenging ar-
eas is vortex-induced vibration (VIV) induced fatigue
excited by ocean current flow. Usually riser VIV is in
high frequency range (~1 Hz) comparing to the wave
induced dynamics (~0.1 Hz). And it is one of the
main sources of fatigue damage for the marine riser
design. Although VIV could be suppressed by strakes
or fairingsthe cost associated with the hardware and
installation is high. Thereforeit is imperative to un-
derstand VIV phenomenon better to avoid overly pre-
dicting VIV responseand reduce the unnecessary
cost associated with VIV suppression. In addition to
the fatigueVIV could also amplify the effective drag
coefficient on the riserincrease the riser motion en-
velopeand impose design challenges on riser inter-
ference.
Water basin VIV experiments could be used to
disclose the VIV details. During the last several years
many VIV experiments have been carried out on deep-
water risers with large L/D. There are many related
publications[4 5]. Howeverexperiment has its own
limitationssuch as facility availability and capacity
limitsmodel scale limitdifficulty of current profile
generationcost concernsetc. Under such condi-
tionsoftware and computer models have been deve-
loped to meet this need. Some software tools were de-
veloped based on experimental data and empirical for-
mula. These tools used model superposition ap-
proachand the modal responses were partially or
fully based on the test data. Other tools were based on
computional fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation ap-
proach. Some of the popular tools for riser VIV pre-
diction were discussed by Chaplin et al[6]. Much effort
has been spent in this area recently [7-16]and its role in
riser system engineering becomes more and more im-
portant. This paper is to summarize some of the au-
thors previous publicationswhich are focused on
individual area or targeted at individual problem [17- 26].
In this papera systemic overview of the issues and

Received 25 May 2013

Vol. 11 No.4Aug. 2013 55

solutions was provided. At the same timethe capa- design. More details are presented by Huang et al[17].
bility of three- dimension (3D) time domain simula-
tion approach was demonstrated.

2 Wake field and riser interference

Riser interference is a very important design
areaespecially for top tensioned risers and riser bun-
dles for free standing riser towerwhere many risers
are closely arranged together in a confined space
and clashing between risers are not allowed. When
subject to strong currentsthe risers could have very
large lateral deflections. In a riser arrayif upstream
riser and its downstream neighboring riser are close
to each otherthen the downstream riser will be influ-
enced by the wake field of upstream riserand has
less riser deflection due to reduced drag force. There-
foreit is important to understand the wake field and
predict the effective drag coefficient.
By using CFD time domain simulation ap-
proachthe velocity vectors in the whole wake field
could be predicted. Fig.1 shows the vortex shedding Fig.1 Velocity vector at x/D=6 (stationary cylinder)
behind a stationary cylinder (with OD=6.35 cm) un-
der uniform current 0.6 m/sand the wake field fluid
particle velocity is plotted at x/D=6or six diameter
downstream. It clearly demonstrates that the wake
field fluid velocity is time dependentand the ve-
locity variation is periodic (same as the vortex shed-
ding frequency). Fig.2 shows the vortex shedding be-
hind a vibrating cylinderand the wake field fluid
particle velocity at x/D=6. Comparing to Fig.1it is
obvious that the wake field width is increasedhow-
everthe wake field velocity deficit (w.r.t. far field in-
coming velocity) is reduced. Normal industrial prac-
tice is to use Huses formula [27- 29] to estimate the
wake field for a stationary cylinderand extrapolate
the formula to vibrating cylinders by increasing the
cylinder outer diameter through a VIV induced drag
amplification factor. From CFD simulation resultsit
is indicated that the wake field width behind a vibra-
ting cylinder does not stretch as much as it is predict-
ed through Huses formulaand it is also indicated
that there is actually a high- speed zone outside the
wake field (this is easy to understand from mass con-
servatism point of viewsince the same amount of
fluid mass has to pass through the cross sectionand
if the fluid velocity behind the cylinder has deficitor Fig.2 Velocity vector at x/D=6 (vibrating cylinder)
is slower than the far field incoming velocitythen
there has to be areas along the cross section that will 3 Higher harmonics
have fluid velocity faster than the far field incoming
velocity). Both findings benefit the riser interference Higher harmonics refer to VIV high frequency

56 ENGINEERING SCIENCES
components having integer multiple numbers of the
cross flow or the in- line VIV frequency. It has been
observed and measured during actual drilling opera-
tions [4]. Howeverit remains unknown what is the
root cause of this phenomenon. CFD time domain
simulation provided a possible option to investigate
this higher harmonics.
In this studya 10 m long toptensioned riser (L/
D=482) was used [19]. It was modeled as a beam with
top tension of 817 N. Its two ends are pinned to the
ground with zero rotational stiffness. Its unit mass is
0.7 kg/mand bending stiffness is 135 N m. The
Reynolds numbers are 7.5 103 for U=0.42 m/s and
1.5 104 for U=0.84 m/s respectively. An example of
the lift coefficient time histories was plotted as shown
in Fig.3. In the figure we noticed the lift coefficient
time histories show the third high frequency compo-
nent (3). This indicates that the 3 harmonics could
be related to the vortex shedding patterns and lift
force. Howeverthe observed high harmonics are not
as strong as the high frequency component in the lift
coefficient. One possible reason is that the lift forces
are acting on the riser segments locallywhile the
riser cross flow VIV response depends on the integrat-
ed effect of all the segments. Thereforeif high fre-
quency lift forces are out- of- phase with each other
then they would cancel each other and the higher har-
monics would be weak. If the lift forces were synchro-
nized along the riserthen we would expect very
strong higher harmonics. More details are presented
by Huang et al [19].
Fig.3 Lift coefficient (U=0.84 m/sx/L=0.3)
4 Shear current profile
The design current profiles for riser system are
not uniform for most of the time. For complex current
profilessuch as shear currentsubmerged current
bottom currentor combinations of themthe riser
VIV responses are complex as well. Furthermoreit
is very difficult to verify the riser VIV responses in
water basin since physically it is challenging to gene-
rate these current profiles for experiments. However
this is straight forward for CFD time domain simula-
tion approach.
As an examplethe results of the riser VIV re-
sponse in shear current is presented in this section to
demonstrate the capability of CFD time domain simu-
lation. The same riser as in Section 3 was used. The
shear current speed has a linear profile with U1 at top
and U2 at bottomwhere U1/U2=0.14. The two cases
we selected for comparison are U2=0.42 m/s (test case
#1205) and U2=0.84 m/s (test case #1210). The cross
flow (CF) VIV induced fatigue damage index along
the riser was calculated and compared to experimen-
tal results (from stain gages) in Fig.4 for U2=0.42 m/s.
The comparison shows that the fatigue damages are
comparable between CFD simulation and experi-
ments. In general CFD code predicts slightly higher
fatigue damage than the experiment. It is worthwhile
to note that both CFD simulations and experiments
show that the fatigue damage distributions on the
riser are not symmetric along the axial direction.
More details are presented by Huang et al [20].
Fig.4 CF fatigue damage index comparison (U2=0.42 m/s)
5 Deepwater riser VIV
For deepwater risersthe riser aspect ratio (L/D)
is quite large. This kind of large aspect ratio riser VIV
can be handled by CFD time domain simulation ap-
proach as well. This section presents the VIV of a hy-
pothetical 10 single casing top tensioned riser sized
for 3 000 ft (1 ft=0.304 8 m) water depth (L/D=
3 350). The riser dynamic response under different cur-
rents is simulated in 3D. The riser-fluid interaction ef-
fect is included through instantaneous drag and lift
forces. The riser has a nominal top tension of
400 kips (1 kips=4.448 kN) submerged weight
121 lb/ft (1 lb 4.448 N )and mass ratio of 4.0. It
has a fundamental frequency of 38 s in seawater.
Fig.5 shows the vorticity contour snapshot where
the vortex pattern could be clearly identified. Over-
allthe riser exhibits strong flexibility. The stress rms
for the uniform and shear currents are presented and
Vol. 11 No.4Aug. 2013 57
compared to Shear 7 in Fig.6. The comparison shows
good agreement. It shows that the worst stress is near
the riser lower end. This is due to the lower effective
tension at the riser bottom portion. This is interesting
since in shear currentthe current has high speed at
the topwhile the VIV-induced fatigue damage at this
location is the lowest. In contrastthere is no current
near the bottomwhile the fatigue damage at this re-
gion is the worst. More details are presented by
Huang et al [18].
Fig.5 Riser VIV snapshotshear current
Fig.6 Riser cross flow VIV induced stress-shear current
U=0.4 m/s
6 Catenary riser VIV
As more and more oil and gas field developments
are in deepwater regions and harsh environments
how to install the subsea equipment and flowlines
safely and efficiently becomes a challenging subject
that might require the further advanced technoligies.
During the installation the flexible flowline effective
drag coefficient is of main interest. For stationary cyl-
inderdesign code [29] provides drag coefficient selec-
tion criteria which depend on Reynolds number.
When the cylinder undergoes VIV in currentthe ef-
fective drag coefficient could be higher because the
riser lateral movement increases the equivalent drag
area. In the CFD simulationthe drag coefficient was
58 ENGINEERING SCIENCES
calculated at each time step and each location along
the riser. The instantaneous drag coefficient depends
on the riser movement and flow field conditionand
may vary dramatically in a wide range. Its impact on
the riser deflection is mainly determined by the time-
averaged value. The simulation results show that the
drag coefficient of the riser upper portion is between
1.0 and 1.5. At the riser bottomthe drag coefficient
varies in a larger rangefrom 0.5 to 2.5. The average
Cd along the riser is approximately 1.3which is 10 %
~20 % higher than the Cd for the fixed riser condition.
The increased drag coefficient explains the large flexi-
ble deflection and high bottom tension observed dur-
ing offshore installation. More details are presented
by Huang et al [25].
7 Flexible jumper VIV
Flexible jumpers are widely used in oil and gas
industry to transport liquid or gas content between
two facility unitsusually located close to each other
and have relative movement. In this hypothetical case
the jumpers first end is attached to a submerged faci-
lity at 50 m below the mean surface leveland its se-
cond end is attached to a hang- off porch at 30 m
above the mean surface level. The nominal horizontal
span is 200 m. The jumper has a diameter of 0.33 m
and total length is 265 m (L/D=800). Its air weight
is 100 kg/mand submerged weight 20 kg/m (mass
ratio=1.0). A uniform current of 0.5 m/s (1 knot) is ap-
plied in the direction perpendicular to the jumper cate-
nary plane. It corresponds to a Reynolds number of
1.5 105. The flexible jumper started with a static cate-
nary shape. When it was exposed to the uniform cur-
rentit deflected in the current direction due to the
drag forces. At the same timeit also started cross
flow vibrations due to the lift forces. The top portion
of the jumper is above the mean surface lineand the
vortex shedding occurs only on the submerged por-
tion of the jumper.
The jumper motion trajectories confirmed that
the jumper VIV behavior in 3D is much more com-
plex than in two- dimension (2D) (rigid cylinder mo-
tions)where the trajectories usually follow figure
8or deformed figure8pattern. The jumper mo-
tion does not exhibit regularity. Insteadit shows cer-
tain degree of random behavior. The main reason is
the lateral offset fluctuations. The mean lateral offset
could vary in a range of one-dimension (1D) near the
two endsand up to 8D at the central portion of the
jumper. More details are presented by Huang et al [26].

8 Conclusions
In this paper we summarized some practical is-
sues related to riser VIVand discussed the CFD si-
mulation results that could help to address these is-
sues. The CFD simulation detailsincluding flow
field vorticitiesrms a/Driser motion trajectories
power spectral densitiesmodal componentsVIV in-
duced stress characteristicsand VIV induced fatigue
damagesdisclosed interesting phenomena associated
with riser VIVand provided insights to the raised
questions. As a noteCFD simulation of the long
riser VIV is a relatively new research area. And there
are too many unknowns and interesting areas to be
further investigatedincluding riser high mode VIV
under strong current and high Reynolds numberVIV
suppression devices including fairings and strakes
deepwater riser non- linear damping effect on VIV
etc.
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Author
Kevin Huangmaleborn in 1971graduated from Tsinghua University. He is currently an engineering
manager at DMAR Engineering Inc. in Houston. Dr. Huang has published more than 20 technical papers in the in-
ternational journals and proceedings. He has more than 18 years experience in the offshore oil and gas industries
and is expertized in floating production system designriser system engineeringflowline and umbilical engi-
neeringand subsea installation. He has employment experience with the major offshore oil and gas service com-
panies and installation contractorsincluding ABB DeepwaterAker KvaernerAcergyand Technip. He can be
reached by E-mailkhuang@dmar-engr.com

60 ENGINEERING SCIENCES