Analysis of Vortex Induced Vibrations of Marine Risers

Vortex induced vibrations (VIV) can be a severe problem to marine risers with regard to fatigue damage and drag loading. In order to design marine risers, therefore, it is necessary to have good theoretical and numerical models for prediction of VIV. Full-scale data are needed for verification of the models. To this end, three drilling risers were instrumented with accelerometers and rotation-rate devices for measurement of VIV. Also, sea current was measured at number of depths for reference. A large quantity of data was collected during the time the instrument system was in operation. In order to choose data records for further investigation and comparison with theoretical models the raw data had to be conditioned and converted to a suitable form. The paper describes how the riser lateral displacements were derived from the measurements. A major task has been to rid the acceleration measurements of the influence of gravity due to the riser's rotations out of the vertical and include the measurements of angular motion in a consistent way. This has been done using modal decomposition and a least-squares method combined with frequency-domain calculation to estimate the modal weights. MATLAB was used for the calculations and the presentation of results. An example of results is given.