The problem of Vortex-Induced Vibrations (VIV) on spool and jumper geometries is known to present several drawbacks when approached with conventional engineering tools used in the study of VIV on risers. Current recommended practices can lead to over-conservatism that the industry needs to quantify and minimize within notably cost reduction objectives.
Within this purpose, the paper will present a brief critical review of the Industry standards and more particularly focus on both experimental and Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) approaches. Both qualitative and quantitative comparisons between basin tests and CFD results for a 2D ‘M-shape’ spool model will be detailed. The results presented here are part of a larger experimental and numerical campaign which considered a number of current velocities, heading and geometry configurations. The vibratory response of the model will be investigated for one of the current velocities and compared with the results obtained through recommended practices (e.g. Shear7 and DNV guidelines).
The strategy used by the software K-FSI to solve the fluid-structure interaction (FSI) problem is a partitioned coupling solver between fluid solver (FINE™/Marine) and structural solvers (ARA).
FINE™/Marine solves the Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes Equations in a conservative way via the finite volume method and can work on structured or unstructured meshes with arbitrary polyhedrons, while ARA is a nonlinear finite element solver with a large displacement formulation.
The experiments were conducted in the BGO FIRST facility located in La Seyne sur Mer, France. Particular attention was paid towards the model design, fabrication, instrumentation and characterization, to ensure an excellent agreement between the structural numerical model and the actual physical model. This included the use of a material with low structural damping, the performance of stiffness and decay tests in air and in still water, plus the rationalization of the instrumentation to be able to capture the response with the minimum flow perturbation or interaction due to instrumentation.
