Numerical investigation of vortex shedding and vortex-induced vibration for flexible riser models

Abstract

The numerical study about the vortex-induced vibration and vortex shedding in the wake has been presented. Prior to the numerical simulation of flexible riser systems concerning engineering conditions, efficiency validating of the proposed FSI solution method have been performed. The comparison between numerical simulation and published experimental data shows that the CFD method designed for FSI solution could give acceptable result for the VIV prediction of flexible riser/pipe system. As meaningful study on VIV and vortex shedding mode with the focus on flexible riser model systems, two kinds of typical simulation cases have been carried out. One was related to the simulation of vortex visualization in the wake for a riser model subject to forced oscillation, and another was related to the simulation of fluid-structure interaction between the pipes of coupled multi-assembled riser system. The result from forced oscillation simulation shows that the vortex-induced vibration with high response frequency but small instantaneous vibration amplitude contributes to vortex conformation as much as the forced oscillation with large normalized amplitude does, when the frequency of forced oscillation was relatively high. In the multi-assembled riser systems, it has been found that the external current velocity and the distance between two pipes are the critical factors to determine the vibration state and the steady vibration state emerging in quad-pipe system may be destroyed more easily than dual-pipe system.