Experimental Investigation of the Effects of the In-Line Top-Motion on the Vortex-Induced Vibration Response of a Flexible Riser

Abstract In order to understand the relation between top-motion and VIV of flexible risers, this paper presents an experimental investigation on concomitant vortex-induced vibration and top-motion excitation with flexible risers. The riser can was mounted vertically, with the diameter of 2 cm and the length of 5 m. The responses of amplitude, frequency and other parameters were analyzed in detail under conditions of different excitation amplitude and frequency in uniform flow. It was found that the concomitant VIV and top-motion excitation significantly affects the flexible cylinder response when compared to the pure VIV tests. The amplitude analysis results show that when the reduced velocity is small (less than about 15), the top-motion excitation has an important influence on amplitude of in-line directions. However, the excitation amplitude and frequency of in-line direction have a little influence on amplitude of cross flow direction. The frequency analysis results show that when the reduced velocity is small (less than about 5), the riser motion amplitude is small and irregular in different excitation and when the reduced velocity is large (5 < Ur < 55), the in-line vibration frequency is two times the cross-flow vibration frequency. A strong connection between the top-motion excitation frequency and the vibration frequency was also found. Overall, some phenomena and characteristics observed in the VIV considering top-motion excitation are different from those in classic VIV, which may provide basic reference for the VIV investigation involving the effect of floating bodies.