Influences of the Helical Strake Cross-Section Shape on Vortex-Induced Vibrations Suppression for A Long Flexible Cylinder

An experimental study on a bare flexible cylinder as well as cylinders fitted with two types of cross-sectioned helical strakes was carried out in a towing tank. The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of strakes’ cross-section on the vortex-induced vibrations （VIV） suppression of a flexible cylinder. The square-sectioned and round-sectioned helical strakes were selected in the experimental tests. The uniform current was generated by towing the cylinder models along the tank using a towing carriage. The Reynolds number was in the range of 800–16000. The strain responses were measured by the strain gages in cross-flow （CF） and in-line （IL） directions. A modal analysis method was adopted to obtain the displacement responses using the strain signals in different measurement positions. The comparison of the experimental results among the bare cylinder, square-sectioned straked cylinder and round-sectioned straked cylinder was performed. The helical strakes can effectively reduce the strain amplitude, displacement amplitude, response frequencies and dominant modes of a flexible cylinder excited by VIV. And the mean drag coefficients of straked cylinders were approximately consistent with each other. In addition, the square-sectioned and round-sectioned strakes nearly share the similar VIV reduction behaviors. Sometimes, the strakes with round-section represent more excellent effects on the VIV suppression of response frequency than those with square-section.

Use of Helical Strakes for FIV Suppression of Two Inclined Flexible Cylinders in A Side-by-Side Arrangement

The experimental studies on flow-induced vibrations(FIV) reduction of two side-by-side flexible cylinders inclined at 45° by using the helical strakes were carried out in a towing tank. The main aim of the experiment is to check whether the helical strakes with a pitch of 17.5 D and a height of 0.25 D, which is considered as the most effective vibration suppression device for the isolated cylinder undergoing vortex-shedding, still perform very well to reduce FIV of two inclined flexible cylinders in a side-by-side arrangement. The vibration of two identical inclined cylinders with a mass ratio of 1.90 and an aspect ratio of 350 was tested in the experiment. The center-to-center distance between the two cylinders was 3.0 D. The uniform flow was simulated by towing the cylinder models along the tank.The towing velocity varied from 0.05 to 1.0 m/s with an interval of 0.05 m/s. The maximum Reynolds number can be up to 1.6×104. Three cases were experimentally studied in this paper, including two side-by-side inclined smooth cylinders, only one smooth cylinder fitted with helical strakes in the two side-by-side inclined cylinders system and both two cylinders attached with helical strakes. The variations of displacement amplitude, dominant frequency, FIV suppression efficiency and dominant mode for the two side-by-side inclined cylinders with reduced velocity were shown and discussed.

A Novel Wake Oscillator Model for Vortex-Induced Vibrations Prediction of A Cylinder Considering the Influence of Reynolds Number

It is well known that the Reynolds number has a significant effect on the vortex-induced vibrations(VIV) of cylinders. In this paper, a novel in-line(IL) and cross-flow(CF) coupling VIV prediction model for circular cylinders has been proposed, in which the influence of the Reynolds number was comprehensively considered. The Strouhal number linked with the vortex shedding frequency was calculated through a function of the Reynolds number. The coefficient of the mean drag force was fitted as a new piecewise function of the Reynolds number, and its amplification resulted from the CF VIV was also taken into account. The oscillating drag and lift forces were modelled with classical van der Pol wake oscillators and their empirical parameters were determined based on the lock-in boundaries and the peak-amplitude formulas. A new peak-amplitude formula for the IL VIV was developed under the resonance condition with respect to the mass-damping ratio and the Reynolds number. When compared with the results from the experiments and some other prediction models, the present model could give good estimations on the vibration amplitudes and frequencies of the VIV both for elastically-mounted rigid and long flexible cylinders. The present model considering the influence of the Reynolds number could generally provide better results than that neglecting the effect of the Reynolds number.

Hydrodynamics of A Flexible Riser Undergoing the Vortex-Induced Vibration at High Reynolds Number

This study proposed a method to obtain hydrodynamic forces and coefficients for a flexible riser undergoing the vortex-induced vibration(VIV), based on the measured strains collected from the scale-model testing with the Reynolds numbers ranging from 1.34 E5 to 2.35 E5. The riser is approximated as a tensioned spatial beam, and an inverse method based on the FEM of spatial beam is adopted for the calculation of hydrodynamic forces in the cross flow(CF) and inline(IL) directions. The drag coefficients and vortex-induced force coefficients are obtained through the Fourier Series Theory. Finally, the hydrodynamic characteristics of a flexible riser model undergoing the VIV in a uniform flow are carefully investigated. The results indicate that the VIV amplifies the drag coefficient, and the drag coefficient does not change with time when the CF VIV is stable. Only when the VIVs in the CF and IL directions are all steady vibrations, the vortex-induced force coefficients keep as a constant with time, and under"lock-in" condition, whether the added-mass coefficient changes with time or not, the oscillation frequency of the VIV keeps unchanged. It further shows that the CF excitation coefficients at high frequency are much smaller than those at the dominant frequency, while, the IL excitation coefficients are in the same range. The axial distributions of the excitation and damping region at the dominant frequency and high frequency are approximately consistent in the CF direction, while, in the IL direction, there exists a great difference.

An experiment study of vortex induced vibration of a steel catenary riser under steady current

The vortex induced vibration(VIV)of marine risers has been investigated by many researchers in experimental studies of a straight flexible riser model as well as a rigid cylinder to reveal the dynamic response characteristic and the mechanics behind it.However,due to the limitation of experimental apparatus,very few studies are about the VIV of a steel catenary riser(SCR)which is with a complex geometry.To investigate the VTV features and to further develop the corresponding numerical predictions of a SCR under steady current,a large-scale model test of a SCR was towed in an ocean basin at various speeds.Fiber Bragg grating strain sensors are instrumented on the riser model to measure both in-plane and out-of-plane responses.The characteristics of oscillating amplitude and dominating frequency response,the phenomenon of mode competition and travelling wave and the fatigue damage of the steel catenary riser in inline and cross-flow direction under steady current are analyzed.