In order to gain a preliminary understanding of the fluid dynamics developed past a curved riser pipe, a numerical investigation into the flow past curved cylinders at a Reynolds number of 100 has been performed. To approximate the flow conditions on curved riser pipes, different velocity profiles and flow directions were applied and the corresponding results compared. In addition, the fluid dynamic loading and the wake structures for curved cylinder flows were investigated. The fully three-dimensional simulations were computed with a spectral/$hp$ element method. The computational results were compared with experiments undertaken in the towing tank facility of the Department of Aeronautics of Imperial College.

1.
Vandiver, J. K., and Li, L., 1994, SHEAR7 Program Theoretical Manual., Department of Ocean Engineering, MIT, Cambridge, MA, U.S.A.
2.
Karniadakis, G. E., and Sherwin, S. J., 1999, Spectral/hp Element Methods for CFD, Oxford University Press.
3.
,
G. E.
,
Israeli
,
M.
, and
Orszag
,
S. A.
,
1991
, “
High-order Splitting Methods for the Incompressible Navier-Stokes Equations
,”
J. Comput. Phys.
,
97
, pp.
414
443
.
4.
Sherwin
,
S. J.
, and
,
G. E.
,
1996
, “
Tetrahedral hp Finite Elements: Algorithms and Flow Solutions
,”
Journal of Computational Physics
,
124
, pp.
14
45
.
5.
Peiro, J., and Sayma, A. I., 1995, “A 3-D Unstructured Multigrid Navier-Stokes Solver,” K. W. Morton and M. J. Baines, eds., Numerical Methods for Fluid Dynamics, V, Oxford University Press.
6.
Peraire
,
J.
,
Peiro
,
J.
, and
Morgan
,
K.
,
1993
, “
Multigrid Solution of the 3-D Compressible Euler Equations on Unstructured Tetrahedral Grids
,”
Int. J. Numer. Methods Eng.
,
36
, pp.
1029
1044
.
7.
Graham, J. M. R., 1993, “Comparing Computation of Flow Past Circular Cylinders with Experimental Data,” Bluff Body Wakes, Dynamics and Instabilities, Springer Verlag, Berlin, pp. 317–324.
8.
Bearman
,
P. W.
, 1998, “Developments in the Understanding of Bluff Body Flows,” JSME Int. J., Ser. B, 41.
9.
Jeong
,
J.
, and
Hussain
,
F.
,
1995
, “
On the Identification of a Vortex
,”
J. Fluid Mech.
,
285
, pp.
69
94
.
10.
Owen, J. C., 2001, “Passive Control of Vortex Shedding in the Wake of Bluff Bodies,” Ph.D. thesis, University of London.