China Ocean Engineering , Vol. 19, No. 1, pp.

147- 154
Z 2005 China Ocean Press, ISSN 0890- 5487

Effect of Internal Flow on Vortex-Induced Vibration

of Submarine Free Spanning Pipelines*
a b a, 1
LOU Min ( 娄 敏) , DING Jian ( 丁 坚) , GUO Ha-i yan ( 郭海燕)
a
and DONG Xiao- lin ( 董晓林)
a
College of Engineering , Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266071, China
b
Ocean College, Hohai University , N anjing 210098, China

( Received 25 August 2004; accepted 4 November 2004)

ABSTRACT
At present, most researches on the vortex- induced vibration of submarine free spanning pipelines ignore the effect of
internal flowing fluid; furthermore, there are no research reports considering the coupling effect of internal and external
fluid with the free span. In this paper, combining Iwan. s wake oscillator model with the differential equation derived for
the dynamic response of submarine free spanning pipelines with inclusion of internal flow, the pipe-fluid coupling equa-
tions are developed to investigate the effect of internal flow on the vortex- induced vibration of the free spans. The finite
element approximation is implemented to derive the matrix equations of equilibrium. The Newmark method combined with
simple iteration is used to solve the system of equations. The results indicate that the internal fluid flow may cause the
shift of resonance band to the lower frequency and a slight decrease in the peak value; the effect will be more pronounced
with the increase of the span length and can be weakened in the presence of the ax ial tension.

Key words: vortex-induced vibration; internal flow ; free sp an; submarine pipelines

1. Introduction

With the decrease of terrestrial oil resources, many countries attach importance to the exploitation
of offshore oil resources, and large numbers of submarine pipelines are laid. Free spans of submarine
pipelines inevitably occur as a result of seabed unevenness, long- term erosion of unstable seabed in-
duced by ocean currents, vibrations of pipelines due to internal and external fluid and other factors.
When a current flows across the free spans at a certain speed, vortex shedding will appear, and if the
frequency of the free spans is close to that of the vortex shedding, oscillat ion will make the frequency of
vortex shedding fixed close to the natural frequency of the structure and cause a large amplitude of v-i
bration which is called the -lock- in. state. When the lock- in state appears, it will aggravate the fa-
tigue damage, not only causing huge losses of the project itself but also leading to secondary haphazard
and environment pollut ion.
A considerable amount of work has been conducted to develop methods for the assessment of Vor-
tex- Induced Vibrat ions ( VIV) of pipelines. Some influent ial researches overseas are as follows: Hong
and Choi ( 2002) performed experiments on the vortex- induced vibrat ions of uniform and towered
pipes; Furnes and Berntsen ( 2003) examined the in- line and cross- line vibration of the pipes subject-
* This Project was fincianlly supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China ( Grant No. 50379050)
1 Corresponding author. E-mail: hyguo@ ouc. edu. cn
 148 LO U Min et al . / China Ocean Engi neering , 19( 1) , 2005, 147- 154

ed to current forces. In China, the representative researches are as follows: Yu et al . ( 2001) mea-
sured the dynamic response of the free spans subjected to steady current and random current .
Although much work has been done for the VIV of submarine pipelines, most of the researches ig-
nored the effect of internal flowing fluid. In fact, when internal fluid flows inside the curved pipe, it
will accelerate due to the curvature and the motion of the pipe. In turn, the acceleration acts again on
the pipe, leading to additional vibration of the pipe. Shen and Zhao ( 1996) studied the effect of inter-
nal fluid on the fat igue life of submarine pipelines undergoing vortex- induced vibrat ion, however, they
simplified the act ion of the external flow on the pipe as a load, not considering the coupling effect of
them.
Therefore, in the present study, considering the internal flowing fluid and external marine env-i
ronment together, the pipe- fluid coupling equations are developed and then solved with the finite ele-
ment method. The effect of internal flowing fluid on the VIV of free spans is analyzed and the relat ions
between the effect and the span length or axial force are also discussed.

2. Mathematic Model

The coordinate system adopted is shown in Fig. 1. The x- axis is coincident with the initial axis of
the pipe, the y- axis is in the same direction as the current horizontally orthogonal to the x- axis, and
the z- axis is in the opposite direct ion of gravity. Consider a pipeline that is supported at x = 0 and x
= L horizontally. The pipeline is cylindrical with a constant outer diameter D and inner diameter D i,
the axial tension is T and the pressure is P . The following assumptions are made:
( 1) Internal fluid flows at a constant velocity of V .
( 2) The effect of waves is ignored and the current is at a constant speed of U.
( 3) The property of the pipe is linear and the pipe is elastic.

Fig. 1. Free span of submarine pipeline model.

2. 1 Equation of Motion
Considering the movement of the free spanning pipeline in the xoz plane under the effects of inter-
nal and external fluid, tension and internal fluid pressure, according to Guo et al . ( 2000; 2004) , the
differential equat ion of the pipe vibration can be described as:
52 z 5z 5 2z
2
Q U2 DC L
( m i V2 + PA i - T ) + EI 5 2 5 z2 = e
2
m 2 + ( r s + r f) + 2m i V +
5t 5t 5x5 t 5x 5x 2
( 1)
where, for unit length of the pipe, m = m i + m r + m f , m i being the internal fluid mass, m r the mass
 LO U Min et al . / China Ocean Engi neering , 19( 1) , 2005, 147- 154 149

C M PQeD 2
of the pipeline, m f the external fluid added mass, and m f = 4 , CM = the added mass coeff-i
cient ; Qe= the density of external fluid; r s is the structural damping; r f is the fluid added damping
and r f= Cw f Qe D 2 ; Cis a coefficient related to the mean sectional drag coefficient of the pipe C D and
CD 2PSrU
C= 4PSr ; Sr being the Strouhal number; w f the vortex- shedding frequency and w f = D ; E is
Young. s modulus of elasticity; I is the second moment of area; C L is the coefficient of instantaneous
sectional lift on the pipe.
Assuming that both ends of the free span are pinned, the boundary condit ions are
5 2z
z ( 0, t ) = z ( L , t ) = 0; = 0. ( 2)
5 x2 x = 0, x = L

2. 2 Wake Oscillator Model

In this paper, Iwan. s wake oscillator model ( Iwan, 1981) is adopted. In the model, the class-i
cal Van der pol equation is used to model the near wake dynamics describing the fluctuating nature of
vortex shedding and the fluid- structure interaction is considered. Only the linear coupling terms of the
interaction are used to describe most of the feature of VIV, thus, the model is simpler than other mod-
els and can be extended to 2- D and 3- D domains. Furthermore the model inosculates well with the ex-
perimental data.
The differential equation of the wake oscillator is ( Iwan, 1981) :
&
q + Ew f( q 2 - 1) ¤
q + w 2f q = F ( 3)
where, q is a dimensionless wake variable which may be interpreted as a reduced lift coefficient and q
= 2C L/ C L0, C L0 being the reference lift coefficient which can be obtained from observat ion of a fixed
structure subjected to vortex shedding; E is a parameter for the nonlinear part; F simulates the effect
A 5 2z
of the pipe mot ion on the near wake and F = , A being a hydrodynamic parameter.
D 5t 2

2. 3 Numerical Solution
The pipe- fluid coupling equat ions can be obtained by combining Eqs. ( 1) and ( 3) .
5 2z 5z 52 z 2 52 5 2 z Qe U2 DC L0
m 2 + ( r s + r f ) 5 t + 2m i V 5x 5t + ( m i V + PA i - T ) + EI 2 2= q
5t 5 x 5x 4
( 4)
and
A 52 z
q + Ew f ( q 2 - 1) ¤
& q + w 2f q = . ( 5)
D 5 t2
The coupling equat ions are estimated by means of the finite element method. The implementation
of the Hermit polynomials as basis functions yields the matrix equat ions of dynamic equilibrium in terms
of deformations at node j of the i- th element . For the construct ion of the matrix equations, the usual
processes are applied and the resulting matrix equations are:
[ M ij ] { &
z j } + [ Cij ] { ¤
z j } + [ K ij ] { z j } = [ F ij ] { q j } , ( 6)
and
 150 LO U Min et al . / China Ocean Engi neering , 19( 1) , 2005, 147- 154

Šij ] { &
[M …ij ] { ¤
qj } + [ C qj } + [ K …ij ] { &
…ij ] { q } = [ F zj}, ( 7)
where, z j is the deformation of pipe at the j- th node; q j is the wake variable at the j- th node;
l l l
5Nj
Q Q Q[ N ] ( r + r ) [ N ] dx ;
T T T
[ Mij ] = [ N i ] m[ N j ] dx ; [ Cij ] = [ N i ] 2m i V dx + i s f j
0 0
5x 0
l l
2 T 2
5 Ni 5 Nj 5N i T
5Nj
Q Q
2
[ K ij ] = EI dx - ( m i V + PA i - T ) dx ;
0
5x 2 5x 2 0
5x 5x
l l
2
Qe U DC L0
Q
[ Fij ] = [ N i ]
0
T
4
[ N j ] dx ; Šij ] =
[M Q[ N ]
0
i
T
[ Nj ] dx ;

l l

[C Q
…ij ] = [ N i ] Ew f( q - 1) [ Nj ] dx ;
0
T 2
[ K…ij ] = Q[ N ] w
0
i
T
f
2
[ N j ] dx ;

l
4

Q E qiN i ;
A T
…ij ] = [ N i ]
[F [ N j ] dx ; q=
0
D i= 1

in which, N i , N j = a set of unique local cubic Hermit polynomial shape functions as an interpolation
function and l is the length of finite element.
Following the solution of the matrices and equations of each finite element, the next step is to as-
semble the equations to obtain the general form of the equations:
[ M] {&z } + [ C] { ¤
z} + [ K] {z } = [ F] { q} ( 8)
and
Š] { &
[M …] { ¤
q} + [ C …] { &
q} + [ K] { q} = [ F z}. ( 9)
Eqs. ( 8) and ( 9) represent the vortex- induced vibration which characterizes the sel- f excited os-
cillator. Once the force due to wel-l formed vorticies acts on the pipe, the acceleration of the pipe itself
acts again on fluid particles as a force. The application of the Newmark method combined with simple
iterat ion is sufficient to solve the system of equations.
Neglect ing the damping term and deleting the force term on the right hand side of Eq. ( 8) , one
can obtain the dynamic equation, the frequency of the pipeline f n , and the angular frequency w n . In

practical ocean engineering, the reduced velocity Vr , which is defined as Vr = U ( Choi, 2001) , is
f nD
used for the determinat ion of the velocity range of VIV.

3. Program Verification

Program resp. m in MATLAB is developed to solve the dynamic response of VIV in consideration
of the co- action of the pipe and fluid. A calculation case is chosen to verify the accuracy of the pro-
gram. The propert ies of the pipe and the parameters of the fluid are given in Table 1 and T able 2, re-
spectively. The internal fluid velocity V, axial force T and pressure P are all assumed to be zero. The
method for the displacement of the pipeline is ( Benassai and Campanile, 2002) :
Z( x , t ) = E Zn ( x ) sin( w n t +
n
Un ) ( 10)
 LO U Min et al . / China Ocean Engi neering , 19( 1) , 2005, 147- 154 151

where, Z( x , t ) is the displacement of the pipe; in the n-th order vibration mode, Zn is the dis-
placement and
I -n 1/ 2Nn ( x ) D
Zn ( x ) = 118 ,
SG
1 + 916
2PSr 2
L L
4PmDsn
in which, I n = Qm ( x )
0
4
Nn ( x ) dx Qm( x )
0
2
Nn ( x ) dx , Nn ( x ) is the modal shape, and SG =
QD 2
2 s
Sr , Dn being the logarithmic decrement of structural damping; Un is the phase angle.

Table 1 Parameters of the pipe

L ( m) E( Pa) D( m) D i ( m) Qr( kg/ m 3) Qi ( kg/ m3 ) Qe ( kg/ m 3)

40 210 @ 1011 0. 35 0. 325 8200 908. 2 1025

Note: Qr = density of pipe; Qi = density of inner fluid.

Table 2 Parameters of the fluid

CM CD C L0 E A Sr

1 1. 2 0. 3 0. 3 12 0. 2

Fig. 2 shows the curves of VIV displacement in the middle of the pipe computed by resp. m and
the reference method. From the f igure it can be seen that , with the resp. m program, an initial value of
the lift variable given, the vortex driven oscillation reaches a steady state in about 10~ 20 cycles. For
the steady state, the two curves agree well.

Fig. 2. A comparison of vortex- induced vibration displacements in the middle of the pipe.
 152 LO U Min et al . / China Ocean Engi neering , 19( 1) , 2005, 147- 154

4. The Effect of Internal Flow on Vortex Induced Vibration

In the following discussion, the pipe properties are the same as indicated in Table 1 except the
span length, and the fluid parameters are the same as given in Table 2.
Fig. 3 and Fig. 4 show the effect of internal flow on the displacement in the transverse direction
of the submarine free spanning pipe without axial tension. From the curves one can see that, as a de-
terminative prompting load, the current makes the vortex- induced vibration occur in a certain range of
reduced velocity. Considering the effect of internal flow on vortex- induced vibration, the flowing of in-
ternal fluid causes the amplitude to increase slightly at lower reduced velocity and then to decrease at
higher reduced velocity. That is, the presence of internal flow leads the resonance band to the lower
frequency and makes the pipe turn into the lock- in state in advance. Thus, the fatigue damage of sub-
marine pipelines will be aggravated apparently if the reduced velocity is low. From the figures one also
can see that the flowing of internal fluid causes a slight decrease in the peak value. From comparisons
of Fig. 3 and Fig. 4 it can be seen that the effect of internal flow will be more pronounced with the in-
crease of span length. So the effect of internal flow on vortex- induced vibration should not be neglect-
ed, in particular, when the span length is long.

Fig. 3. The effect of internal flow on the displacement Fig. 4. The effect of internal flow on the displacement
in transverse direction of 40 m long pipe. in transverse direction of 80 m long pipe.

Fig. 5 and Fig. 6 show the effect of internal flow on the displacement in the transverse direction
for different tensions for 40 m and 80 m long pipes, respectively. As shown in the figures, the tension
causes the resonance band to shift to the higher frequency and the peak value to increase slightly; the
effect is just opposite to that of the internal flow, therefore, the tension can weaken the effect of inter-
nal flow. At a low reduced velocity, the tension may effectively defer the appearance of the lock- in
state. However, at a high reduced velocity, the presence of tension will increase the displacement due
to vibrat ions which will aggravate the fatigue damage to free spans.
 LO U Min et al . / China Ocean Engi neering , 19( 1) , 2005, 147- 154 153

Fig. 5. The effect of internal flow on the displacement Fig. 6. The effect of internal flow on the displacement
ransverse direction for different tensions ( 40 m long pipe) .ransverse direction for different tensions ( 80 m long pipe) .

5. Conclusions

A computation model for vortex- induced vibration of free spans of submarine pipelines is proposed
together with numerical solutions and a computer program. Based on the results of sample computation
and examination of the effect of internal flow, the following conclusions can be drawn:
( 1) The flowing of internal fluid may cause the resonance band to shift to the lower frequency and
the peak value to decrease slightly.
( 2) The span length influences the effect of internal flow: the effect of internal flow will be more
pronounced with the increase of span length.
( 3) The tension has an effect opposite to that of internal flow; therefore, the presence of tension
can weaken the effect of internal flow on vortex- induced vibration.

References

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