Using CFD to Study the Effects of Staggered Buoyancy on Drilling Riser VIV.

The article presents a study which examines the possible advantage of the spaced arrangement of buoyancy modules to lessen the vortex induced vibration of deepwater drilling risers. Field experiments showed that the buoyancy modules have a tendency to suppress vortex induced vibration (VIV). The study assesses the flow characteristics of different combinations of buoyancy modules using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). CFD simulations offer an inexpensive approach to produce hydrodynamic characteristics of riser components.