Hydrodynamic Forces on offshore structures

• Offshore structures, e.g. piles, pipeline, risers and cables

• Source of forces: Caused by fluid movement passing over the structures

• Type of structures
– Slender objects (D/L < 0.2, D: diameter, L: length)
• Flow separation and vortex shedding dominate the forces on
slender objects
• Little effect on waves
– Large objects (D/L > 0.2)
• Flow separation insignificant
• Significant effect on waves;
• Wave diffraction becomes important
1
 1. Forces on a slender cylinder in a steady current
1.1 Vortex Shedding –Phenomenon
1.2 Effect of Reynolds Number on St and Cd
1.3 Effect of Surface Roughness on St and Cd
1.4 Effect of Cross-Section Shape on St and Cd
1.5 Effect of Wall Proximity
1.6 Effect of angle of attack
Main contents 1.7 Oscillating drag and lift

2. Forces on a cylinder in regular waves

2.1 Hydrodynamic Mass
2.2 Drag vs inertia force for a circular cylinder
2.3 Measurements of Drag and Inertia
2.4 Lift on a cylinder in oscillatory flow
2.5 Effect of roughness on Cd and CM
2.6 Effect of angle of attack
2
References
•Sumer, B. M. and Fredsoe, J. (1997) “Hydrodynamics around
cylindrical structures”, World Scientific
•Sarpkaya, T. and Isaacson, M. (1981), “Mechanics of wave forces on
offshore structures,” Van Nostrand Reinhold Company

3
1. Forces on a slender cylinder in a steady current
• Flow around a cylinder exerts a force on the cylinder.
• The in-line (in flow direction) component force is termed Drag
• The cross-flow (or transverse) component is called Lift

D Drag
U

Lift

Figure 1 4
• The mean drag and lift are often evaluated using the following
formulae in engineering:
1 1
FD = C D ρU D and FL = C L ρU 2 D
2 (11.1)
2 2
where CD and CL are drag and lift coefficients, U is mean velocity and D the
diameter of cylinder. FD and FLare the forces per unit length (i.e. N/m).

• The drag and lift coefficients (CD and CL) depend on

• Reynolds number (Re=UD/ν)
• Shape of the cylinder
• Cylinder surface roughness
• Turbulence intensity of the incoming flow
• proximity of other objects
• Angle of attack, etc.
5
1.1 Vortex Shedding -Phenomenon

Figure 2
6
Forces due to vortex shedding
• Vortex shedding produces oscillating forces on cylinder
• Drag (Figure 6a)
– Same direction as the flow
– Non-zero mean
– Small oscillation amplitude but twice as fast as lift (2fv)

• Lift (Figure 6b)

– Transverse direction to flow
– Zero mean
– Larger oscillation amplitude
– Constant frequency (fv)
7
 2 3
H-typ e g rid
2
1.6 HO H-typ e g rid

1
1.2
CD CL 0
0.8
H-type grid -1

0.4 HOH-type grid -2

0 -3
0 20 40 60 80 0 20 40 60 80
Tim e Tim e

Fig 6a. Time history of the Fig 6b. Time history of the
drag coefficient lift coefficient
8
Vortex Shedding Frequency fv
• Normalized vortex shedding frequency is often used in practice and
referred to as Strouhal number:
fv D
St = (11.2)
U

where fv is the shedding frequency.

• Stroughal number is found to depend on Reynolds number, roughness,
cross-section shape, incoming flow turbulence, shear of incoming flow,
wall proximity etc..

9
1.2 Effect of Re on St and CD

Figure 7a
St ~ Re
Re

Figure 7b
CD ~ Re

Re 10
Example 11.1
Calculate vortex shedding frequency around a pipeline of 0.5 m diameter,
subject to a uniform current of 0.8 m/s. Assume a smooth pipe.

D = 0.5m, U = 0.8 m/s

Re = UD/ν = 0.8 × 0.5/(1×106) = 4 ×105.
From Figure 7b, we get St = 0.5

As St = fvD/U fv = St×U/D = 0.8 Hz

11
1.3 Effect of Surface Roughness on St and C D
The effect of surface roughness on fv at different Re is shown in Figure 8.

St
With the increase
of ks/D, St
decreases.

ks: roughness

Re
12
Figure 8. Effect of surface roughness on vortex shedding frequency
 •For small Re, C D takes the value obtained for smooth cylinders
•Curves shift to lower Re as ks increases, due to earlier transition
to turbulence,
•The critical Re shifts to lower values as ks increases,

Figure 9. Effect of surface roughness on mean drag coefficient 13

1.4 Oscillating drag and lift

• The drag and lift on a cylinder in steady current are oscillating at regular
frequencies due to vortex shedding,
• Magnitudes of the force oscillations are represented by the corresponding
RMS values of force oscillations,
• The oscillating frequency is often described by Strouhal number St,
• Oscillating forces are responsible for vortex-induced vibrations (VIV)

14
Root-mean-square (rms) forces

1
F = C ρ DU 2 and
'
D
'
D
2

1
F = C ρDU 2
L
' '
L (11.3)
2

Strouhal number:

St = f v D / U

Fig 10. Instantaneous drag and lift obtained

from the measured pressure distributions
15
Fig.11 Fig.12 16
1.5 Effect of cross-section shape on St and C D

Table 2. Effect of cross-section shape on St

17
 (Values can be found
from any books when
this is needed)

18
Table 3. Effect of cross-section shape on CD
1.6 Effect of wall proximity on C D and force coefficients
Wall effect on drag and lift coefficients

1
FD = C D ρDU a2
2

Figure 15. Dependence of on e/D

CD
19
where Ua is velocity at the same elevation as the pipe centre above the seabed.
Wall effect on lift coefficients 1
FL = C L ρDU a2
2
1
FL' = C L' ρDU a2
2

(b)
(a)

(a) Comparison in shear-free and shear flows. (b) Root-mean-square lift coefficient.
103 < Re < 3 × 104. 103 < Re < 3 × 104.

Figure 16. Dependence of lift coefficients on e/D 20

1.7 Effect of angle of attack
When there is an angle between the flow and the cylinder,
1
FN = CD ρU N2 D (U N = U cos θ ) (11.4)
2
UN
UN : velocity component normal to the cylinder. θ
CD : drag coefficient U
This is the so-called cosine Law or Fig. 17
the independent principle (IP).
Validation of the cosine Law for drag coefficient:
Generally, it is valid only for θ ≤ 45°.
Validation of the cosine Law for Strouhal number:
St = f v D / U N (11.5)
Eq. (11.5) is valid for θ ≤ 45°. St has the same values as shown in Fig. 7a.21
Example 9.2
Calculate the drag on a pipeline of 1m in diameter laid on the seabed if the
gap between the pipe and the seabed is 3 m, 1 m, 0.3 m and 0. The pipeline
subject to a steady current of 0.77 m/s at 1 m above the seabed. The angle
between the direction of the current and the pipeline is 72o. The water depth
is 15 m.
Reynolds number based on the normal velocity:
ReN =UND/ν = 0.77×cos(18°)×1/10−6 = 7.32×105
UN
The boundary layer thickness is δ = 1m
U
78°
δ/D = 1/1=1
Using Fig. 15 the solid line, for e = 3m, 1m, 0.3m, and 0,
we have: C D = 1, 1, 0.6 and 0.48 respectively

Using FN = 1 CD ρU N2 D , the forces can be calculated. 22

2
2. Forces on a cylinder in regular waves
2.1 Flow around a cylinder in oscillatory flows
•In steady current, the hydrodynamic quantities depend on Re,
•In oscillatory flow, flow also depends on Keulegan-Carpenter number:
KC = U mTw / D (11.6)
Um: the maximum orbital velocity of water particles,
Tw : wave period (s).
•If the flow is sinusoidal with the velocity given as:
U = U m sin(σt )
where σ = 2π / Tw = 2πf w : angular velocity; fw : frequency.
The maximum velocity will be
U m = aσ = 2πa / Tm (a: amplitude of the motion)
The KC number: KC = 2π a / D 23
The flow regime depends on KC number (Table 4)

Table 4. Flow regimes around

a smooth circular cylinder in
oscillatory flow. Re = 1000.

24
Morison Equation for forces:
The Morison equation for in-line force on a stationary cylinder:

1 dU Inertial force
F = CD ρ DU U + ρ CM A (11.7)
2 dt

where A is the cross-sectional area of the cylinder; CM (= Ca+1) is the

inertia coefficient and Ca is the hydrodynamic mass coefficient.

The Morison equation for in-line force on a moving cylinder:

1 dU dU
F= C D ρD(U − U b ) U − U b + C M ρA − Ca ρA b (11.8)
2 dt dt

where Ub is the velocity of the cylinder in the in-line direction.

25
2.2 Hydrodynamic Mass
• Hydrodynamic mass (added mass) is defined as the mass of fluid around
an object which is accelerated with the acceleration of the object,
• It is caused due to relative acceleration between the object and the fluid,
• It can be determined by the integration of pressure around the object and is
often expressed by:
m ' = ρ CaV (11.9)
where Ca is the hydrodynamic mass coefficient and V is the volume of
the object. It can be proved that for a circular cylinder, Ca = 1.

It can be proved that the force required to accelerate a cylinder (with

mass m) with an acceleration of a in a still fluid is given by:

F = (m + m ')a (11.10)
26
2.3 Drag vs inertia force for a circular cylinder
• Drag and inertia force are 90o out of phase
• The ratio between inertia force and drag force on a circular cylinder is
Finertia π 2 C M
= (11.11)
Fdrag KC C D
• Eq. (11.11) indicates that inertia force dominates the drag for small KC
number but drag dominates for large KC number.
Measurements of drag and inertia forces:
•If Fm(t) is the time series of measured in-line force induced by a sinusoidal
flow, we can get the following force coefficients:
8 1 2π
CD = 2 ∫0
Fm cos(σt ) cos(σt ) d (σt ) (11.12)
3π ρDU m
2 KC 1 2π
CM = 2 ∫0
Fm sin(σt )d (σt ) (11.13)
π ρDU m
3 27
 Variation of CD and CM with KC number
KC
Fig 18a. Variation of CD with KC number
at Re=17000.
Three distinct regimes:
•KC<0.3: CD is governed by asymptotic theory, •KC<6: CM is governed by asymptotic
•0.3<KC<13: transverse-vortex-street regime,
•KC>13: CD is approximately constant
KC
Fig 18b. Variation of CM with KC number
at Re=17000.
Three distinct regimes:
theory,
•6<KC<13: transverse-vortex-street regime,
•KC>13: CD is approximately constant28
Force coefficients for a smooth circular cylinder – Re effect

Fig. 16 In-line force coefficient for

a free smooth cylinder.

29
2.4 Lift on a cylinder in oscillatory flow
• Lift oscillates at a frequency different from that of the flow oscillatory
• The magnitude and frequency of lift oscillations are important for design
1
FL max = C L max ρDU m2 (11.13)
2
1
FLrms = C Lrms ρDU m2 (11.14)
2
C L max = 2C Lrms (11.15)

Table 5. Fundamental lift

frequencies.
(vortices)
fL: lift frequency (Hz)
fw: frequency of the flow.

30
2.5 Effect of roughness on CD and CM

Re
Fig 18a. Effect of roughness on CD 31
Fig 18b. Effect of roughness on CM

32
2.6 Effect of angle of attack on CD and CM (p161)

U NmTw
KC =
D

U Nm D
Re =
ν

•For KC>20, CD is
independent of θ,

Fig 19a. Effect of angle of attack on CD

33
 •For small KC, CM approaches
the potential value of 2,
•Over the range 8≤KC≤20,
CM is sensitive to angle.

Fig 19b. Effect of angle of attack on CM 34