Vortex-induced vibration of slender structures in unsteady flow

Vortex-induced vibration (VIV) results in fatigue damage of offshore oil exploration and production structures. In recent years, the offshore industry has begun to employ curved slender structures such as steel catenary risers in deep-water offshore oil systems. The top-end vessel motion causes the slender riser to oscillate, creating an unsteady and nonuniform flow profile along the riser. The purpose of this research is to develop a VIV prediction model for slender structures under top-end periodic motions. The key approach to this problem requires identifying the dimensionless parameters important to the unsteady VIV. A set of data from a large-scale model test for highly compliant risers conducted by industry is available. The spectral analysis of the data showed a periodic pattern of the response frequencies. A constant Strouhal (St) number model was proposed such that shedding frequencies change with local inline velocities. The Keulegan-Carpenter number (KC) controls the number of vortex pairs shed per cycle. A KC threshold larger than 40 was found to have significant response for a long structure with finite length excitation region. An approximate solution to the response of an infinite beam with a finite excitation length was obtained; this solution provided an explanation for the high KC threshold. A model for an equivalent reduced damping Sg under a non-uniform, unsteady flow was proposed. This equivalent reduced damping Sg was used to establish a prediction model for the VIV under top-end periodic motions. A time domain simulation of unsteady VIV was demonstrated by using Green's functions.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2002

Author dc:creator

• Liao, Jung-Chi, 1971-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• J. Kim Vandiver.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/8331

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/8331