Hydrodynamic forces on fixed submerged cylinders

Abstract

Wave loads on the cylindrical members of fixed offshore structures are generally calculated by using Morison’s Equation. The inertia force component of this equation is conventionally quoted in a form derived from theoretical calculations for a uniformly accelerating fluid. In this paper the correct form for the inertia force in a general fluid flow is derived from first principles by pressure integration and, independently, from earlier work, by energy arguments. It is shown that, for the thin cylinder limiting case, the transverse force on a circular cylinder is incorrectly given by the conventional approach, in that the product of transverse fluid velocity (in the direction of the required force) with the longitudinal velocity gradient should be added to the water particle acceleration, when computing the added-mass component of the force. Axial divergence, in other words, appears to play the role of a rate-of-change of added mass. It is shown that the mathematical origin of this extra term is the classical three-dimensional flow feature of a ‘zonal harmonic’, which produces a convective fluid acceleration but zero loading. A more elaborate formula is derived for non-circular cylinders, and the nature of point loads occurring at cylinder ends is also discussed.