Numerical investigation of local scour around a 2-degree of freedom vibrating subsea pipeline in steady flow under sagging condition

Abstract

Numerical simulations are conducted to investigate the local scour below a sagging subsea pipeline vibrating in two degrees of freedom (2-DOF), covering a sagging ratio from −0.3 to 0 and a wide range of reduced velocities from 0.5 to 15. A negative sagging ratio means that the static balance position of the bottom surface of the pipeline is below the sand surface. The combined effects of the sagging and 2-DOF vibration of the pipeline on the scour are investigated. The maximum scour depth of the 2-DOF vibrating pipeline in the lock-in range of the vibration increases by 10% compared to the 1-DOF; however, the reduced velocity where the maximum scour depth occurs changes from 5 to 6. The variations of the vibration amplitude with the reduced velocity for all the sagging ratios follow a similar trend. For embedment ratios of −0.4 to −0.3, initial condition of scour simulation affects the equilibrium scour depth and vibration amplitudes. Simulations with a flat sand surface as initial condition prevent full scour development because the pipeline reaches its static balance position due to weak flow through the pipeline-to-bed gap. However, if the simulation starts with a sufficiently large initial scour depth, scour can reach its equilibrium.