Experimental investigation on flow-induced vibration of a flexible catenary riser conveying severe slugging with variable gas superficial velocity

Abstract

A flexible catenary riser conveying gas–liquid mixture may experience the severe slugging induced vibration (SSIV) within a specific gas and liquid superficial velocity range. In this work, the SSIV of a flexible catenary riser with aspect ratio of 200 and a horizontal upstream pipeline was experimentally investigated to shed some light on the nonlinear multiphase flow-induced vibration and the correlation with the dynamic behaviour and the flow evolution. The non-intrusive optical measurement with high-speed cameras was employed to capture the vibration displacements of evenly distributed markers along the riser as well as the flow characteristics of gas–liquidmixture in the riser. The first and second types of severe slugging (SSI and SSII) were observed in the standard case (vsg = 0.177 m/s and vsl = 0.094 m/s) with an occurrence frequency ratio of 1:3. Large amplitudes are excited in the slug formation and gas blowout stages, and the latter presents more violent vibration with a faster travelling waves’ propagation speed. When the gas superficial velocity increases while maintaining the liquid superficial velocity, the transition stage is significantly elongated, characterized by the alternate appearance of partially filled gas–liquid mixture and short liquid slugs. Nevertheless, each liquid slug, no matter it is long or short, makes its contribution to the vibration response, presenting the coincidence of the recurrence frequency and the vibration frequency. The response amplitude is associated with the liquid slug length as well as the location of liquid inventory. The contributions of the three regimes (SSII, short liquid slugs and partially filled mixtures) are mainly associated with their occupied time. The severe slugging is the predominant contributor at vsg≤ 0.708 m/s, while its contribution is negligible at higher gas superficial velocities.