OTC 8702

A Field Study of Flow Induced Vibrations on a Deepwater Drilling Riser

G.K. Fumes, Norsk Hydro E&P, T. Hassanein, BP Expl., K.H. Halse, Statoil R&D and M. Eriksen, Robit AS

Copyright 1998, Offshore Technology Conlerence
This papar was prepared lor presentation at the 1998 Offshore Technology Conlerence held in
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Abstract
A data acquisition program has been performed to examine
accelerations and displacements of a full scale drilling riser in
1300 m water depth off the coast of mid Norway. The data
was collected during BP's Nykh~gda (Nyk High) drillin~
programme that was carried out from the 7rb. May to the 201
July 1997. The present experiment is the first of three planned
under the "Norwegian Deepwater Programme".
The riser instrumentation consisted of five accelerometer units
with two linear accelerometers in each unit. Two of the units
were in addition equipped with two rotational rate sensors. An
accelerometer unit consisting of five sensors was installed on
the platform itself to monitor the platform motion. In addition,
a set of instruments was moored to record the time and depth
dependent currents at the location.
A successful data retrieval was achieved for all the
accelerometers covering a period of 74 days. The data
analysis has revealed flow induced riser oscillations with
several possible mode shapes. The present paper deals with the
field experiment design and some features of the observed
accelerations.
Introduction
A deepwater drilling riser is a very flexible structure. The
dynamic properties of a flexible structural system are
determined by the mass, stiffness, and damping of the system.
~e d~amic mass is given by the mass of the riser joints
mcluding buoyancy and the associated hydrodynamic added
mass. The stiffness is given mainly by the effective tension in
th.e riser, but wit? an.~ditional contribution from the bending
stiffness of the nser JOints. The bending stiffness contribution
has increased importance for vibration of high modes. The
major contribution to the damping is the hydrodynamic
damping caused by the relative velocity between the
surrounding fluid and the riser as it vibrates. In addition there
will be some damping contribution from the drilling riser
itself, e.g. material damping, friction in couplings etc.
In addition to wave loading and rig motion a riser is subjected
to severe current loading. For a deepwater riser the current
loading becomes increasingly important relative to the other
environmental loads. Shedding of vortices from the riser
surface may set up an oscillating lift force which excites riser
motions. If the shedding frequency is close to one of the
natural frequencies of the riser, significant Vortex Induced
Vibrations (VIV) of the riser may occur. VN may contribute
significantly to the fatigue damage of a deepwater riser, and it
is therefore of vital importance to be able to predict the VIV
response with sufficient accuracy.
In connection with the ISrb. round licence awards on the
Norwegian continental shelf it was decided to establish the
Norwegian Deepwater Programme (NDP) as an umbrella
organization for all the partners of the 6 licences. Members of
the NDP are BP, Conoco, Exxon, Mobile, Norsk Hydro, Saga,
Shell, and Statoil. The intention with NDP is to focus on
technological development in fields of mutual interest for the
licences. NDP is organized in different projects of which the
Riser & Mooring Project is one. Within this projects
workscope is the response analysis of risers for deepwater
applications, and one of the critical tasks is to be able to
predict the VlV response of a riser.
The existing response prediction methods in use in the
offshore industry are all empirically based, and none has an
extensive validation for deepwater application. Hence, it was
decided to set up a data acquisition programme in which the
~rilling risers at three of the wells of the ISrb. round deepwater
hcences should be instrumented to monitor the riser response.
The first one was the drilling riser on the "Ocean Alliance"
during the drilling program on the Nykh~gda (Nyk High) in
May-July 1997. The drilling was done in about 1300 metres
water depth and conducted by BP. The aim of the monitoring
was to acquire data for examination of movements of the riser
~d subsequen~ly uti~ize these data to quantify possible VIV's
m. terms of excited elgenmodes and their amplitudes. The data
Will . ~so be used to validate and/or calibrate response
predlcuon methods such as the model implemented in the
computer code Shear7 (MIT, 1995, 1996).
This paper describes the drilling riser and the instrumentation

199
2 G.K. FURNES, T. HASSANEIN, K.H. HALSE AND M. ERIKSEN
set-up, and will show preliminary results fiom the data
acquisition such as observed current velocities and
corresponding response frequencies.
Riser instrumentation
The drilling riser was about 1300 metres long, fully buoyant
with an external diameter (including buoyancy modules) of
1.15 metres. Nominal riser top tension varied between 3800
kN and 4200 kN during the drilling operations, with a mean
close to 4000 kN. The submerged weight of the drilling riser
flooded with sea water was about 1000 kN, which indicates
that the bottom tension was about 3000 kN. The specific
gravity of the mud weight used in the riser ranged from 1.03 to
1.28.
Modal analysis using Shear7 has been carried out prior to the
investigation to determine the expected natural frequencies of
the riser system. The outcome of that gave the following
results for the lowest modes:
Mode 1 0.0128 Hz
Mode 2 0.0255 Hz
Mode 3 0.0384 Hz
Mode 4 0.0512 Hz
Mode 5 0.0641 Hz
The location of the 5 riser sensor units was designed to resolve
the modes that would be exited in the most probably current
conditions expected during the drilling programme, namely
modes 1 to 5. Figure 1depicts the positions of the instruments
along the riser. The lower unit (PI) was installed 29.5 meters
above the sea bed and 18.5 meters above the upper end of the
lower flex joint. The positions of the other units were 372,
613,911 and 1189 metres above the seabed. All 5 instrument
units were equipped with two linear accelerometers. Two of
the units were celocated with sensors for measurement of
rotations (see Figure 1). A topsides sensor unit was also
located on the main deck to measure rig motions. The sensors
used were Allied Signal servo accelerometers and Systron
Donner Quartz rate sensors. The data from this unit will not be
discussed in this paper.
The sensor units were clamped to slick riser joints and
positioned mid-way between the kill and choke line, 90" in a
clockwise direction from the kill line seen from above. A
template was made to ensure a correct alignment of the sensor
units on the riser. Figure 2 presents more detail about the
orientation of the riser units.
The data logger clocks were synchronised and set up for a data
collection of 34 minutes every 1 hour and 36 minutes. Hence a
new time series started simultaneously on each logger every 1
hour and 36 minutes, i.e. at 00:00, 01:36,03:12,04:48, 06:24,
O8:00, ... to 22:24. Each time series length was 4096 samples
at 2 Hz. This give 34 minute sampling 15 times a day. By a
mistake instrument P2 (Figure 1) was set up to 2048 samples
at 2 Hz, or 17 minutes.
Since the accelerometers are sensitive to both linear
accelerations and the gravitational component it is important
to use these data with great care through a detailed
OTC 8702
understanding of the processes that are measured. The output
from the accelerometers can be expressed by:
In this expression a(1incomp) is the component of linear
acceleration parallel to the direction of sensitivity for the
accelerometer, g is the acceleration due to gravity and O is the
angle between the direction of sensitivity for the accelerometer
and the plane perpendicular to the gravitational vector. More
details about the sensors are given in a technical report (Robit
1997).
Current measurements
The through water current profile was measured from the
drilling rig at the same time. A 75 kHz Acoustic Doppler
Current Rofiler (ADCP) was suspended at 180 m depth, and
used to measure the mid depth current speed and direction
with sampling period of 4 seconds. Time series of the currents
were acquired and recorded every 10 minutes at 7 depths by
this ADCP unit, namely 223, 271,319, 367,415,462, and 51 1
m below the sea surface. The data are of doubtful quality at
some depths, in particular the time series at 223 and 271 m
depth which had to be disregarded.
A second 1200 kHz ADCP unit suspended at 55 m depth was
used to measure the currents above 50 m depth. The data from
this second ADCP unit was not available in time for this
paper, however for the time period analysed in the next
section, the results from these measurements indicate that a
relatively uniform speed and direction was recorded above 50
m (Adrian HanneyPrivate communication). Extraction of
additional time series fiom the measured data may be required
in the future.
Seabed currents were also measured using Aanderaa RCM8
current meters deployed onto the seabed.
Very little information is available about flow induced
vibrations in shear flow when the current direction varies with
depth. In the present paper we have therefore focused on a
situation where the currents are more or less unidirectional
with depth but the magnitude could vary to cover different
Reynolds number regimes.
Figure 3 and 4 present time series of current speed and
direction respectively, for the selected subset of the current
meter data. The data covers about 4112 days, from 22 May at
about 7 PM to 27 May at 12 PM. It is seen fiom Figure 3 that
the residual (non tidal) current speed is on average lower
during the first part of the series than the second. The current
direction is fairly constant with depth, in particular over the
last half of the series when the speed is strongest.
Superimposed on the flow is the tidal current which is
dominated by the semidiurnal M2constituent.
According to Figure 3 the range of the current speed is from 0
d s to approximately 0.6 d s . The drag diameter (including
buoyancy) for the riser is D=1.15 m. The Reynolds number
recovered from these current speeds is hence of the order of
0.5.10~or less. However, the typical speed at depths where
OTC 8702 A FIELD STUDY OF FLOW INDUCED VlBR;ATIONSON A FULL SCALE DRILLING RISER
acceleration measurements are available is of the order of 0.10
- 0.30 m/s giving typical Reynolds number in the range of
0.9.10' - 1.8.ld . The flow is hence close to the regime of
transition from laminar to turbulent boundary layer on the
riser.
Riser accelerations
It is worth noting that the instrumentation units placed on a
riser node will predominately measure changes in riser
inclinations, whereas those placed on a riser antinode measure
riser translation motions. The lower unit (PI) will always sit
next to a node, and will therefore measure changes in riser
inclinations. Accelerations measured by the other
instrumentation units on the riser may consist of pure
translation components, pure rotation or a mixture of both,
depending on the mode shape excited on the riser. Figure 11
depicts this.
The data analysis in this paper is based upon the X and Y
components of the linear accelerations (converted to physical
units) and corrected for offset in accordance with numbers
given by Robit as. For ease of comparison with the current
direction as presented in Figure 4 the accelerations are
decomposed such that positive X is towards east and positive
Y towards north.
Figure 5 presents the mean value of the total accelerations
[sqrt(x2+y2)] at each depth based upon the mean value of the
individual 34 min. time series. The corresponding standard
deviations are plotted in Figure 6.
It is evident from Figure 5 that the mean accelerations are
subjected to significant variations with time but also to some
extent from one instrument unit to the other. However, some
of the pronounced events appear at all instrument units except
for unit P2.
Although the scales are different, there is a striking similarity
in the mean accelerations at P1 and P5. The periodic
oscillations which are seen in the records have the same
frequency as the semidiurnal tide and indicate that flow
induced displacements are present. In fact comparing the
current speed at 51 1m depth (Figure 3) with accelerations at
P1 or P5, the strong coupling beween currents and
accelerations is evident. These accelerations are of course
dominated by the gravitational component and indicate an
inclination of the riser rather than VIV.
To examine possible VIV events it is more appropriate to take
a look at the standard deviation (std) presented in Figure 6. As
seen from this figure the time series are characterized by low
std values in the first part and higher in the second part. This
feature is similar to the development of the current speed and
indicates that current induced activities are present. It is also
evident that some of the pronounced std's coincide with the
maximum current events.
To get a measure of how the variability in Figure 6 is
distributed in the frequency domain, the Power Spectral
Density (PSD) was computed for each time series. The result
of that revealed a number of frequencies (>lo with confidence
limit above 95%) whose relative contribution to the variance
3
may be different from one series to the next. A spectral peak
of 0.0254 Hz appeared in several time series with a maximum
PSD for the series starting at 25' May at 04:48. Peaks in the
PSD are also identified at frequencies of 0.0410, 0.0273,
0.0801, 0.0234 and 0.0508 Hz. The last frequency is exactly
twice 0.0254 Hz and also appears on 25' May at 04:48.
A significant contribution (broad band) to the variance is also
found between 0.1-0.2 Hz with maximum around 0.15 Hz.
This is probably generated near the sea surface, perhaps by
wave motions. An indication of that may be found in Figure 7
where the peak frequencies at each depth are plotted versus
time. It is apparent from this figure that the occurrence of
frequencies between 0.1-0.2 Hz is more frequent at P5 than at
the instruments below. The dominating peak frequencies at
P1-P4 are generally below 0.1 Hz, in fact at P1 it is never
above.
Choosing a Strouhal number of 0.23 the expected vortex
shedding frequency (or lift frequency) can be estimated from
f, = 0.19.U where U is the current speed. Typical current
speeds are 0.10 m/s to 0.30 m/s giving a lift frequency range
of 0.019 to 0.057 Hz. Possible VIV excitations should
therefore most likely be found at freqencies below 0.1 Hz.
Excitation of eigenmodes
The frequency of mode 2 which was found from the Shear7
analysis coincide with the "leading frequency" (0.0254 Hz)
found in the observations. It is therefor of interest to examine
in more detail the time series starting 25" May at 04:48 where
the response at this frequency is most prominent and appears
at all depths.
Figure 8 presents individual observations of X (east) and Y
(north) accelerations for each instrument and plottet versus
each other. It is apparent from Figure 8 that the magnitude
and direction of the accelerations vary along the riser. While
P4 and P5 apparently have a nearly random directional
distribution of the accelerations, P1-P3 have a tendency of
variations along a north-westerly to south-eastery directions.
The current direction is approximately 200' (towards south
west) and hence roughly normal to the this variability.
Figure 9 presents the Power Spectral Density (PSD) of the
considered time series. The most pronounced PSD at P3 - P5
is the "second mode" frequency at f2 = 0.0254 Hz with a
maximum at P3. At P1 and P2 the dominating PSD is twice
this frequency, namely at 0.0508 Hz. This frequency is also
present at P3 and P4 but not at P5. A frequency of 0.0371 Hz
is also found at PI-P4 but not at P5 (the 95% confidence limit
bar is plotted at the right side of the figure). Notice also a
frequency at 0.0762 Hz at P1 which can be resolved at some of
the other instruments as well.
An overview of the time variation of the total accelerations at
each observation depth is given in Figure 10 for a time elapse
of 250 s. For comparison purposes the amplitudes are plotted
in the same scale. The dominating frequency of 0.0254 Hz (
39.4 s) at P3 is evident.
The nondimensional parameter V, = V/(f,,D) denoted as the
reduced velocity is used to determine whether or not the local
4 G.K. FURNES, T. HASSANEIN, K.H. HALSE AND M. ERIKSEN OTC 8702

flow velocity is at a value which may lead to coincidence
between the natural fiequency and the frequency of lift forces
created by the local shedding of vortices. In this expression V
is the local current speed, f,, is the frequency as computed from
the PSD and D is the riser diameter.
The reduced velocity was computed for a number of time
series from 22 May to 27 May. The amplitudes of the
accelerations was determined for each fiequency and by
assuming they could be expressed by a, = &sin(2xfnt) the
total "displacements" were determined by integrating twice
with respect to t. Hence the "displacement" is given by
~,=ad(4n?f:). It is very important to stress that these
amplitudes may have a significant contribution fiom the
component of accelerations due to gravity, if the accelerometer
is not in an antinode. To recover pure translations it is
necessary to compare the results in light of mode shapes.
Figure 11 depicts the lowest mode shapes together with the
instrument positions and Figure 12 the computed relative
"displacements" versus reduced velocity. In Figure 12 the
highest amplitudes (A/D21) are labeled with numbers which
indicates instrument and fiequency as following:
Preliminary estimates of the displacements indicate that the
largest amplitude was excited on the second mode. The
maximum amplitude was found to be just below one riser
diameter.
Acknowledgements
Tarek Hassanein of BP lead the work to perform the
measurements on the BP's Nykhagda well. The support of the
Ocean Alliances drilling team in facilitating the work is
gratefully acknowledged. The publication of this paper has
been supported by the Norwegian Deepwater Programme,
Riser & Mooring Project, and its member companies
References
Adrian Hanney, Geos. Private Communication. 1998
MIT. SHEAR7 Program Theoretical Manual. Dept. of Ocean
Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Cambridge, MA. 1995
MIT. Users Guide for SHEAR7 Version 2.0. Depth of Ocean
Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Cambridge, MA 1996

Robit Technical Report. NDP Riser and Moorings project -

VIV Data Acquisition Nyk High. Doc. No. TR042970,
Sandvika, Norway 1997.

It it apparent from this table that the highest amplitudes appear

around a frequency which is suggested to represent the second
mode. The position of the P3 sensor for this mode shape is in
the vicinity of a node (Figure 11) which indicates that the
acceleration is dominated by the gravity component. However,
P4 (6) is in an anti-node and should represent a near pure
translation. The maximum horizontal displacement for the
considered period is hence most likely to be deduced from P4
and is estimated to be just under one riser diameter.

Concluding remarks
Monitoring of the riser accelerations on the "Ocean Alliance"
gave a successful data retrieval for all accelerometers covering
a period of 74 days. The full scale measurements will be used
to improve the analysis tools currently available for predicting
the VN responses of risers under different current conditions.
The data collected will enable the validation of existing VIV
prediction programs such as SHEAR7.
The present paper is conserned with an early analysis of a 41/2
day sample of the measured data. The sample was selected to
represent a period where peak currents and riser vibration
measurements were recorded. A m a e complete analysis of the
full data set will be followed up subsequently.
The results of the analysis so far indicates riser responses on
several frequencies with a strong coupling to the observed
currents. There are also indications of responses that could be
induced by the surface wave activity.
 F i w e 3.Cumnt wemi at dlRerent deDms Figure 4. Cumnt dimc4h at different deplhs

22 22.5 23 23.5 24 24.5 25 25.5 26 26.5 27

w
22 22.5 23 23.5 24 24.5 25 25.5 26 26.5 27 22 22.5 23 23.5 24 24.5 25 25.5 26 26.5 27
Tme 122-27 May] Time [22-27 May]
 -
Ed OSd -
Ld OSd
 Figure 11. Mode shapes and the location of sensors

Mode 1 Mode 2 Mode 3 Mode 4 Mode 5

Figure 12. Estimation of displacement versus reduced velocity

2.5

1.5

S
1

0.5

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Reduced velocity