Riser Design: Hydrodynamics & Environmental

Considerations

Preview/Introduction
Offshore structures used for exploration of oil and gas from under the
seabed are often subjected to wave, current and wind loading. Survival of
offshore structures depends on robust engineering design that can
withstand the environmental loading. Clear understanding of different
environmental conditions at which offshore structure operates is essential.

Wave Theory
Waves are, in general, random in nature. However, random waves can be
sufficiently described by a series of regular waves. A regular wave is one
that’s characteristics remain invariable from one cycle to another.

There are several wave theories that can be used to design offshore
structures. There are three parameters that are needed in describing any
wave theory. They are:

1. Time period, T: the time taken for a crest and trough of a wave to pass
through a stationary point.

2. Wave height H: which is the vertical distance between a crest and the
following trough.

3. Water depth, d: the vertical distance between the mean water level to
the mean sea floor level.

Figure 1 shows a schematic figure of a regular wave incorporating all the

parameters.

Figure 1: A regular wave with main parameters.

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Other relevant parameters for the wave theory are:

1. Wavelength,  : distance between successive wave crests (or trough)

2
2. Frequency,   , where T is the time period of a wave
T
3. Wave elevation,  , the instantaneous elevation (height) of the wave still
or mean water level.

Linear Wave Theory

Linear wave theory is the simplest and the most applied wave theory. This
theory is also called Airy wave theory. For the linear wave theory, the
elevation of the free surface (wave) has a sine (or cosine) form and the free
surface elevation can be written as:

  a sin(x  t ) (1)

H
where, a = amplitude of the wave, a 
2
2
 = frequency of the wave,  
T
2
 = wave number,  

t = instantaneous time
x  co-ordinate location at the wave elevation.

Equation (1) describes a progressive wave in that the elevation varies with
time, t and location, x .

Figure 2 shows the elevation of a wave at two different time, t  0 and t  t1

. Both profiles have same shape, but shifted in the horizontal direction.

Figure 2: Wave surface profile at t  0 and t  t1 showing the horizontal shift.

Rewriting Equation (1)

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 
  a sin  ( x  t) (2)


This expression indicates that the frozen wave moves in the x-direction with
a velocity,


c (3)


This velocity c is called the celerity or speed of propagation of wave.

There is another speed/velocity which is important for the linear wave

theory:


The group speed c g  (4)


Group speed represents the propagation velocity of the front of a

harmonically oscillating wavetrain. As an example, we can consider a wave
maker in a model basin that generates harmonically oscillating waves. If we
want to know the time it takes for the wave front to reach the “beach” at
the end of the model basin, we should use the group velocity in the analysis.

Fluid Particle Motion within the Wave Field

Figure 3 shows a regular wave motion over a flat seabed. The fluid particle
velocity under the wave at any location can be obtained by solving a set of
fluid flow equations with appropriate boundary conditions. Without going
into details of the governing equations and the solution method, the
formulas for the linear wave properties are listed in Table 1:

Quantity Deep water relationship

Dispersion relationship  2  g
Wave profile   a sin(x  t )
Horizontal Velocity u  aey sin(x  t )
Vertical Velocity v  aey cos(x  t )
Horizontal Acceleration u   2aey cos(x  t )
Vertical acceleration v   2aey sin(x  t )
Dynamic pressure P  gaey sin(x  t )
Table 1: Linear wave theory relationships for deep water

Note: These formulas are based on “deep water” assumption. The


deepwater criterion for wave is water depth h  .
2

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Another very important relation that relates the wave frequency,  to wave
number,  is the dispersion relationship.

Figure 3 shows time history of linear wave properties. It is important to

note that the maximum values of the different physical variables do not
happen at the same time.

Figure 3: Time history for linear wave properties

Table 2 gives the linear wave relationship for shallow water.

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 Quantity Shallow water relationship

Dispersion relationship
 2  g tanh(kh)  gk 2 h

Wave profile
  a sin(x  t )
Horizontal Velocity cosh[k ( y  h)]
u  a sin(x  t )
sinh(kh)
Vertical Velocity sinh[k ( y  h)]
v  a cos(x  t )
sinh(kh)
Horizontal Acceleration
cosh[k ( y  h)]
u   2 a cos(x  t )
sinh(kh)

Vertical acceleration
sinh[k (h  y)]
v   2 a sin(x  t )
sin(kh)

Dynamic pressure
cosh[k (h  y)]
P  ga sin(x  t )
cosh(kh)

Table 2: Linear wave theory relationships for shallow water

Statistical Description of Waves

Waves are random in nature. However, the linear wave theory can be
applied to simulate irregular sea and to obtain statistical estimates.

The wave elevation of a long-crested irregular sea propagating in the

horizontal direction can be expressed as the sum of a large number of
regular wave components as:

N
   ai sin( i x   i t   i ) (5)
i 1

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The wave amplitude, a i , can be extracted by defining a wave spectrum
S ( ) as:

ai  2S (i ) (6)

where, i  i

Figure 4: Wave spectrum from frequency domain is linked to time domain

random wave profile.

Figure 4 shows the connection between frequency domain and time domain
representation of a random wave.

The wave spectrum can be estimated from wave measurement. In this

aspect, the sea wave can be assumed as a stationary random process and
the wave measurement can be done over a range from ½ hour to may be
10 hour. In the literature this is often referred to short-term statistics of
the sea.

There are few recommended wave spectrum S ( ) by the following

organisation:

(a) International Ship and Offshore Structures Congress (ISSC)

(b) International Towing Tank Conference (ITTC)

For open sea condition of a fully developed sea, the 15th ITTC recommended
the ISSC spectral formulation:

S ( ) 0.11  T1 
5
  T1  
4

   exp   0.44   (7)

H12/ 3 2  2    2  

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Where, H1 / 3 = is the significant wave height [mean of the highest one-
third highest waves]. Significant wave height is also written as 𝐻𝑠 .

T1 = mean wave period defined as,

m
T1  2 o (8)
m1

Where, mk   0
 k S ( )d (9)

The 17th ITTC recommended the flowing JONSWAP (Joint North Sea Wave
Project) type spectrum for limited fetch (for example, North Sea).

H12/ 3  944 
S ( )  155 exp   4 4 (3.3)Y (10)
T1 
4 5
 T1  

  0.191T1  1  2 
Where, Y  exp     (11)
  2   
1/ 2

5.24
And   0.07 for  
T1
5.24
  0.09 for  
T1

Once a spectrum is known, the probability density function for the

maximum wave elevation, A can be obtained from the Rayleigh distribution
given by,

A A
2

P( A)  e 2 m0
(12)
m0

Short term Sea state

Significant Wave Height

Hs is defined as the average height of the largest 1/3 of the waves in the
wave train. Hs is also roughly 1.6 times the mean wave height, Hm.

Example Significant wave height calculation

Table 3 shows the up-crossing wave heights of thirty consecutive waves.

The second column in Table 1 indicates the rank of the wave with rank 1
being the highest wave in the data set and rank 30 being the smallest wave
in the data set. The significant wave height will be calculated by finding the
average height of the largest ten waves:

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Table 3: Wave heights for measurements
up-crossing rank (highest
wave height (m) to lowest)

2.79 19
3.74 10
3.99 9
2.94 18
3.27 14
2.65 20
4.22 8
5.57 1
4.96 3
2.322 21
3.55 11
4.38 7
3.058 17
1.679 27
2.052 24
0.495 30
3.21 15
3.096 16
1.596 28
1.9978 25
2.118 23
3.365 12
4.88 4
1.572 29
4.6 6
4.81 5
5.29 2
3.36 13
2.267 22
1.984 26

This wave record has duration of approximately 6 minutes. Typically the

wave records used to calculate the characteristics of the sea state are 20
minutes long.

Calculate the significant wave height.

Hydrodynamics around Pipes

Subsea environmental conditions play a considerable role in the design of

almost all subsea structures, including subsea pipelines and risers.
Environmental data relevant to subsea pipelines and risers include: (1)
wave heights, time periods and directions and (2) currents and direction.
Both waves and currents generate hydrodynamic loads on pipelines and
risers. Flowfield around a subsea pipe is shown in Figure 5. We will use the
environmental data for analysing pipeline stability.

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Figure 5: Flow around a subsea pipe.

For calculating randomness in the wave loading, the wave loads are
generated by a representative irregular wave, which can be described by
its wave heights and its associated wave periods. For the installation
scenario of subsea pipeline design are based on the significant wave height
with an associated range of period in the wave conditions of a 1 year return
period and for the lifetime scenario such as on bottom-stability with the
wave conditions of a 100 year return period. A return period, also known
as a recurrence interval (sometimes repeat interval) is an estimate of the
likelihood of an event, such as an extreme wave height to occur.

Wave Data Processing

In time domain analysis, the wave data are typically characterised by

significant wave height and a mean zero-crossing wave period. The
significant peak-to-peak wave height can be calculated as four times of the
zeroth moment of the process, 𝑚𝑜 ,

𝐻𝑠 = 4.0√𝑚𝑜 (13)

Where, 𝑚𝑜 is the zeroth moment of the wave power spectrum. The

maximum wave height, 𝐻𝑚𝑎𝑥 , the probability of exceedance for a single
wave out of a group is given by Rayleigh density distribution, as shown in
Figure 6.

Figure 6: Rayleigh density function

The significant wave height is determined from the statistical data of wave
height, which is the mean of the shaded area.

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From the Rayleigh distribution, the following wave heights are calculated:

𝐻𝑠 ≅ 1.6 𝐻𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛 (14)

𝐻𝑚𝑎𝑥 ≅ 1.86𝐻𝑠 ≅ 3𝐻𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛 (15)

Where, 𝐻𝑚𝑎𝑥 is the most probable largest wave height given by

𝐻𝑠 . The significant wave period,
𝑇𝑠 , is another commonly used parameter. It is the average period of the
highest one third of all recorded wave periods. The peak period and zero-
up-crossing period are often used as alternatives to the significant wave
period to characterise a sea elevation process. The peak period, 𝑇𝑝 , the
period of the wave containing the most power, is of particular interest when
describing irregular random sea states. The zero-up-crossing period, 𝑇𝑧 , is
the average time between successive movements of the water surface
through the mean position in the upward direction.

Steady Currents

Seabed currents in design data are normally given at a reference height

above the seabed. The location of the pipeline in the velocity boundary layer
(see Figure 5) lowers the effective velocity at the pipeline height, and the
mean current velocity over the pipe diameter may be applied in the
analysis. According to DNV (2007), the average current velocity over the
pipe diameter considering logarithmic boundary layer is given by,
𝑧
𝑢𝑐 (𝑧𝑟 )( 𝑜 +1) 𝐷
𝑢𝑐 = 𝑧
𝐷
{𝑙𝑛 (𝑧 + 1) − 1} (16)
𝑙𝑛( 𝑟 +1) 𝑜
𝑧𝑜

Where, 𝑢𝑐 (𝑧𝑟 ) = current velocity at reference measurement height

𝑧𝑟 = reference measurement height (usually 3 m)
𝑧𝑜 = bottom roughness parameter
𝐷 = total external diameter of pipe (including any coating)

The effect of the seabed roughness, 𝑧𝑜 , is taken into account in the

equation. The rougher the seabed, the thicker is the boundary layer and
the lower the average velocity over the pipe height.

The total water particle velocity is obtained by adding the velocities from
waves and currents together:

𝑢𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 = 𝑢𝑤 + 𝑢𝑐 (17)

Hydrodynamic Forces

A pipeline section exposed to a flow experiences hydrodynamic forces, due

to combined effect of increased flow velocity above the pipe and flow
separation from the pipe surface. Hydrodynamic forces are associated with
velocities due to steady currents superposed by any wave that may be
present, as shown in figure 6.

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Figure 6: Fluid drag and inertia forces acting on a pipe section

The drag, lift and inertia forces acting on per unit length of the pipe are
given by:

1
Drag: FD  C D DU m U m (18)
2
1
Lift: FL  C L DU m2 (19)
2
 D 2  
Inertia: FI  C I   U w (20)
 4 
Where,
𝑈𝑚 = transverse water velocity (total velocity of wave + current)
𝑈̇𝑤 = transverse water acceleration
𝜌 = density of seawater
𝐷 = total external diameter of pipe

C D , C L and C I are hydrodynamics co-efficient. There are many theoretical

and experimental researches to determine these co-efficient. However,
there are uncertainties regarding their values. Typically, drag, inertia and
lift coefficients of hydrodynamic forces for a pipeline on seabed are
empirically chosen as 𝐶𝐷 = 0.7, 𝐶𝐼 = 3.29 and 𝐶𝐿 = 0.9.

Hydrodynamics stability of a pipeline

Subsea pipelines are subjected to the drag, lift and inertia forces due to
wave and current loads. When the lateral forces (drag and inertia) are
sufficiently large to overcome seabed friction, lateral movement is possible.
The pipeline lateral on-bottom stability design focuses mainly on getting a
minimum submerged weight of pipeline so that it can resist design load
during the operation period.

Simplified Stability Method

A pipe is stable on a seabed if the submerged weight W s satisfies the

expression:

 (Ws  FL )   [( FD  FI )max ] (21)

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where,  = soil friction factor (0.7 for sand)
 = a safety factor. This safety factor accounts for uncertainty in
actual soil friction, environmental data and hydrodynamic coefficient.
Recommended safety factors are:   1.05 for installation,   1.1 for
operation [DnV RP E305].

Hydrodynamic Loading on Slender Structures (Riser, Platform leg)

The hydrodynamic loading on slender structures can be expressed by the

Morison equation. Examples of the slender structures are: column and
pontoons of semi-submersibles and tension leg platforms (TLP), risers and
cables. The fluid velocities and accelerations can be found by considering
relevant contributions from wave kinetics and current. The fluid velocities
and accelerations are decomposed into the longitudinal and tangential
components (see Figure 7). Thus, the mean force per unit length for circular
cross-sections can be expressed as:

1 𝜋𝐷 2
𝐹𝐷,𝑛 = 2 𝜌𝐶𝐷 𝐷𝑉𝑛 2 + 𝜌 4
𝐶𝑀 𝑉𝑛̇ (22)

1 𝜋𝐷 2
𝐹𝐷,𝑡 = 2 𝜌𝐶𝐷 𝐷𝑉𝑡 2 + 𝜌 4
𝐶𝑀 𝑉̇𝑡 (23)

1
𝐹𝐿 = 𝐶𝐿 𝐷𝑉𝑛2 (24)
2

Where, 𝐹𝐷,𝑛 = force per unit length in normal direction

𝐹𝐷,𝑡 = force per unit length in tangential direction
𝜌 = water density
𝐷 = diameter
𝑉𝑛 , 𝑉𝑛̇ = fluid velocity and acceleration in normal direction
𝐶𝐷 , 𝐶𝑀 = drag and inertia coefficient

Figure 7: Definition of force components on a cross-section of a slender

structural member. (𝑈𝑐 = Incident total velocity).

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