Vortex induced vibration and structural integrity of deep-water flexible risers

Completed

Fossil Fuels: Oil Gas and Coal(Oil and Gas, Other oil and gas)
Fossil Fuels: Oil Gas and Coal(CO2 Capture and Storage, CO2 storage)

Basic and strategic applied research

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Mechanical, Aeronautical and Manufacturing Engineering)

Not Cross-cutting

Professor H Bahai
Sch of Engineering and Design
Brunel University

Standard

EPSRC

06 January 2014

05 June 2017

41 months

£582,939

Mechanical engineering

London

NC : Engineering

Professor H Bahai, Sch of Engineering and Design, Brunel University

Dr G Alfano, Sch of Engineering and Design, Brunel University

Project Contact, Sheffield Forgemasters Engineering Ltd (SFEL)
Project Contact, BP International Ltd

The long flexible slender multi-layered pipes, called unbonded flexible risers, are considered as the new-generation risers for deep water applications. However their complex design and highly non-linear behviour coupled with the fact that they undergo types of extreme loadings which are different to those experienced by conventional rigid risers, currently pose many challenges to the offshore industry. The focus this work is on developing fluid, structural, and coupling models and the numerical procedures for the prediction of dynamic response of flexible risers due to vortex induced vibration, in cases where accurate simulation of their complex non-linear behaviour is a critical step in the analysis. In the structural simulation, it is intended to adopt a multi-scale non-linear finite element procedure which consistently links simulations conducted at a detailed small scale and a large structural scale. The fluid simulation work involves the development of a quasi-three-dimensional fluid code to model the cross flow around the flexible risers. The structural and fluid codes will be coupled together by developing an efficient fluid-solid interaction algorithm. The results from the numerical simulation will be validated against the results of experiments which will also be carried out as part of the project

16/06/14