On Determination of VIV Coefficients Under Shear Flow Condition

Long marine risers exposed to ocean currents will experience vortex induced vibrations (VIV), which may cause severe fatigue damage. VIV is, however, generally less understood than other load effects. The offshore oil industry has therefore supported an intensive research activity on VIV during the last two decades. High mode VIV model tests with long flexible riser models were initiated by the Norwegian Deepwater Programme (NDP). A 38 m horizontally towed instrumented riser was tested in uniform and linearly sheared current profiles with varying towing speed. A second series of experiments has been conducted with a motion-controlled rigid cylinder in order to find the hydrodynamic coefficients for realistic cross-section trajectories. The pipe was forced to follow periodic patterns found from the NDP tests with flexible beam. The Reynolds’ number and the non-dimensional frequency, as well the amplitude ratio was kept identical for both types of tests, ensuring that the flow conditions for these two experiments remain the same. The hydrodynamic coefficients calculated from natural trajectories show a general agreement with pure harmonic forced motion tests. A slight change of excitation regions was, however, found for cross-flow response. Another observation is that in-line excitation force coefficients have much higher values than found from pure in-line test.