Numerical prediction of vortex-induced vibration on steel catenary risers

Engineering analyses of vortex-induced vibration (VIV) of steel catenary risers (SCR) are presently performed either by experimental tests in model stale or by semi-empirical numerical prediction tools which are depending on experimental data to obtain force coefficients for their hydrodynamic force calculations. This paper presents a new alternative for VIV predictions of SCRs by use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) techniques. The CFD analyses allows the analysts to perform numerical predictions without any input coefficients and tuning parameters from experimental test. This ability makes the present numerical method a useful validation tool for VIV analyses made by semi-empirical programs, since it approaches the physics of the phenomenon in a very different way. The present numerical method is validated against experimental tests and other numerical tests, and the predicted riser response is found to be in good agreement.