Experimental investigation of vortex-induced vibrations of long free spans near seabed

There are many experimental studies dedicated to determining the effect of the proximity of a plane boundary on the vortex-induced vibration (VIV) of submarine pipeline spans, but they all only concerned the first mode VIV motion of the pipe. In this paper, a pipe model, 16 mm in diameter, 2.6 m in length and with a mass ratio (mass/displaced mass) of 4.30, was tested in a current tank. The reduced velocity was in the range of 0-16.7 and gap ratios at the pipe ends were 4.0, 6.0 and 8.0. The response of the model was measured using optical fiber strain gauges. Results of response amplitude and frequency were presented and the transition from the first dominant mode to the second one was shown. In the tests, it was found that the response amplitude experienced a continuous transition between the two modes, but the dramatic increase in the response frequency appeared with the shift in dominant mode from the first mode to the second one as the flow velocity increased. As the gap ratio decreased, the shift in the dominant mode took place at a higher reduced velocity.

The effect of functional loads on free spanning pipeline's VIV response

During the operation and installation of offshore pipelines, high axial forces and pressures are experienced, and their effects cannot be neglected. In this article, the effect of internal flow velocity and functional loads on vortex-induced vibration （VIV） response is investigated. On the basis of the Hamilton principle, a differential equation was derived to describe the motion of a pinned-pinned tensioned spanning pipeline conveying fluid. The VIV response was calculated according to DNV-RP-F105 under different functional loads. The results showed that functional loads influence free spanning pipeline VIV response by changing the natural frequency. Internal flow velocity was found less important for VIV response than other functional load factors, such as effective axial force, because the speed in reality is not high enough to be significant. The research may provide a reference for sensitivity studies of the effect of functional loads on allowable free span lengths.

Effect of Internal Flow on Vortex-Induced Vibration of Submarine Free Spanning Pipelines

At present, most researches on the vortex-induced vibration of submarine free spanning pipelines ignore the effect of internal flowing fluid; furthermore, there are no research reports considering the coupling effect of internal and external fluid with the free span. In this paper, combining Iwan's wake oscillator model with the differential equation derived for the dynamic response of submarine free spanning pipelines with inclusion of internal flow, the pipe-fluid coupling equations are developed to investigate the effect of internal flow on the vortex-induced vibration of the free spans. The finite element approximation is implemented to derive the matrix equations of equilibrium. The Newmark method combined with simple iteration is used to solve the system of equations. The results indicate that the internal fluid flow may cause the shift of resonance band to the lower frequency and a slight decrease in the peak value; the effect will be more pronounced with the increase of the span length and can be weakened in the presence of the axial tension.

Experimental Study on Free Spanning Submarine Pipeline Under Dynamic Excitation

Seismic load has a significant effect on the response of a free spanning submarine pipeline when the pipeline is constructed in a seismically active region. The model experiment is performed on an underwater shaking table to simulate the response of submarine pipelines under dynamic input. In consideration of the effects of the terrestrial and submarine pipeline, water depth, support condition, distance from seabed, empty and full pipeline, and span on dynamic response, 120 groups of experiments are conducted. Affecting factors are analyzed and conclusions are drawn for reference. For the control of dynamic response, the span of a submarine pipeline is by far more important than the other factors. Meanwhile, the rosponse difference between a submarine pipeline under sine excitation and that under random excitation exists in experiments.

Analysis of Dynamic Characteristics of Submarine Free Spanning Pipelines by Complex Damping Method

Considering the effect of the internal flowing fluid and the external marine environmental condition, the differential equation for the vortex induced vibration (VIV) of the free spanning pipeline is derived and is discretized by the Hermit interpolation function. The free vibration equation with the damping term is solved by the complex damping method for the natural frequency, and then the effect of fluid damping on the natural frequency of the free spanning pipeline is analyzed. The results show that fluid damping has a significant influence on the damped natural frequency of the free spanning pipeline in the lock in state, while it has little influence when the pipeline is out of the lock in state. In the meantime, the change of the free span length has the same effect on the damped natural frequency and the undamped natural frequency.

Study on Model Tests and Hydrodynamic Force Models for Free Spanning Submarine Pipelines Subjected to Earthquakes

A test rig is built to model the dynamic response of submarine pipelines with an underwater shaking table in the State Key Laboratory of Coastal and Offshore Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, China. Model tests are carried out to consider the effects of exciting wave directions and types. Based on the experimental results, two hydrodynamic force models derived from Morisen equation and Wake model are presented respectively. By use of hydrodynamic force models suitable for free spanning submarine pipelines under earthquakes, diseretized equations of motion are obtained and finite element models are established to analyze dynamic response of free spanning submarine pipeline subjected to multi-support seismic excitations. The comparison of numerical results with experimental results shows that the improved Morison and Wake hydrodynamic force models could satisfactorily predict dynamic response on the free spanning submarine pipelines subjected to earthquakes.

Condition Identification Based on Vibration Measurements for Free Spanning Submarine Pipelines

Free spanning pipelines are suspended between two points on an uneven seaffoor. The variations of structural conditions, such as the changes in soil property, flow velocity, axial force and span length etc., directly affect working performance of the whole submarine pipeline system. But until now few researches have focused on condition identification for free span （CIFS）. A method to identify the operational conditions of free spanning submarine pipelines based on vibration measurements is proposed in this paper. Firstly, the ill-posedness of CIFS is analyzed in detail. Secondly, the framework for CIFS based on the nonlinear kernel discriminant analysis （KDA） is established. Thirdly, the internal structural characteristics of natural frequencies, normalized frequencies and frequency change ratios are studied. And then the condition feature vector for CIFS is extracted by use of the vibration measurements. Finally, the validity of the proposed approach is evaluated by a case study. The results demonstrate that the proposed approach can effectively identify each condition of free span when condition variation occurs even if under measurement noise. It is concluded that the proposed method is a promising tool for CIFS in real applications.