Experimental Investigation on Vortex-Induced Vibration of a Free-Hanging Riser Under Vessel Motion

Abstract

A model test of a free-hanging riser under vessel motion was performed in the ocean basin at Shanghai Jiao Tong University to confirm whether vortex-induced vibration (VIV) can happen due to pure vessel motion, to investigate the equivalent current velocity and Keulegan–Carpenter (KC) number effect on the VIV responses and to obtain the correlations for free-hanging riser VIV under vessel motion with VIV for other compliant risers. Top end of the riser was forced to oscillate at given vessel motion trajectories. Fiber Brag Grating (FBG) strain sensors were used to measure the riser dynamic responses. Experimental results confirmed that the free-hanging riser would experience significant out-of-plane VIV. Meanwhile, VIV responses in terms of response amplitude, response frequency and cross-section trajectories under different test cases were further compared and discussed. Most importantly, the correlation among VIV response frequency, vortex shedding pairs and maximum KC number KCmax was revealed. The presented work is supposed to provide useful references for gaining a better understanding on VIV induced by vessel motion, and for the development of future prediction models.