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Abstract
To date, at least seven assets worldwide, including gas export, Fig 4 Typical sidebranches which act as acoustic resonators
gas injection, gas lift transfer and low pressure gas flare have
all experienced this phenomenon and it is considered likely Joint Industry Project
that as the demand for gas export from deepwater fields
increases, this number will increase. Although the full mechanism is not yet fully understood,
considerable progress has been made through an ongoing Joint
The Flexible Riser as a Source of Excitation Industry Project (JIP) co-sponsored by BP, ExxonMobil,
Statoil and the Health and Safety Executive to determine the
As dry gas passes through a flexible riser, an unstable shear Strouhal number and gain an understanding of the positive
layer is generated off each of the internal corrugations which feedback mechanism which results in the high dynamic
make up the internal carcass see schematic illustration in pressure pulsations experienced.
figure 3 below.
As part of the JIP, a significant amount of scale and actual
carcass testing has taken place over a range of gas pressures
and flow rates, and with different gases, with the objective of
identifying the key parameters that govern:
The potential for a system to experience the flow induced Producing Source strength and Pressure Drop models, to
pulsation problem is increased if the system has any of the then enable a executable Evaluation tool to be developed
following attributes: for submission to the JIP participants, i.e. which with
carcass geometry and process conditions as input data, it
piping arrangements both upstream and downstream of
will predict the static pressure drop, the onset velocity,
the riser which generate a significant degree of acoustic
and the frequency and maximum amplitude of the
reflection this includes piping manifolds, tie-ins, dead-
pressured pulsations
leg sidebranches etc;
the riser gas velocity is greater than 1.5 m/s. Guidelines for Flow Induced Pulsations in Flexible
Risers
From analysis of both offshore and laboratory test data, it is
clear that a minimum flow velocity is required to excite the The following sections give advice in terms of hazard
problem, and that this velocity is dependent on both the riser identification, associated risks and immediate mitigation
characteristics (profile, dimensions etc), and the process measures. Current members of the existing JIP have access to
conditions (mainly pressure). Once this velocity is exceeded, more detailed technical information to allow a more
the system will start to operate in the flow induced pulsation quantitative assessment to be undertaken. It is hoped that key
regime, while in contrast, at lower flowrates there are unlikely elements will subsequently be put into the public domain once
to be any signs of the problem. The onset velocity depends on the information is confirmed to be robust.
a number of parameters, although the reflection coefficients at
the end of the riser appear to have an important influence as Hazard Identification
shown in figure 9.
It is possible to identify a system exhibiting flow induced
pulsations by the following characteristics:
100
Examining this effect of the boundary conditions on the onset
of the whistling behaviour will be one of the objectives in the 90
325Hz
650Hz
70
Completing High Pressure (60 bar) testing of actual 6
carcass sections and evaluating the effect of the 60
previously tested at low and medium pressures; 0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800 2000
Frequency, Hz
References