An Experimental Analysis of the Interaction Between Hanged Pipe and Internal Flow

The pipes are playing an important role in the offshore environment. Risers and pipelines are widely deployed by the petroleum industry for the well drilling and hydrocarbons production. Whereas during drilling, a mixture of drilling mud and solids in suspension (rock cuttings) flows through the drilling riser; during the production, mono or multiphase flow (comprising oil, water and gas) takes place within the production system. However up till now, most of investigations on offshore pipelines and risers have neglected the effects of the internal flow and have focused mainly on the interaction among pipe’s structure, hydro-dynamic forces and offshore platform’s motion. This paper deals with the interaction between the pipe structure and its internal flow. An experimental analysis was carried out, in the Deep Sea Basin of the National Maritime Research Institute (Japan), using a model of 10 m length. In this experiment, a mono-phase fluid of liquid and another bi-phase fluid of liquid and solids in suspension are used as the internal flow fluid and a parametric analysis using the internal flow rate and pipe’s oscillating frequency was carried out. Discussion about the experimental results is also included.