Application of Helical Strakes for Suppressing the Flow-Induced Vibration of Two Side-by-Side Long Flexible Cylinders

Helical strakes have been widely applied for suppressing the vibration of flexible cylinders undergoing vortex-shedding in offshore engineering. However, most research works have concerned on the application of helical strakes for the isolated flexible cylinder subjected to vortex-induced vibration (VIV). The effectiveness of helical strakes attached to side-by-side flexible cylinders in vibration reduction is still unclear. In this paper, the response characteristics of two side-by-side flexible cylinders with and without helical strakes were experimentally investigated in a towing tank. The configuration of the helical strakes used in the experiment had a pitch of 17.5D and a height of 0.25D (where D is the cylinder diameter), which is usually considered the most effective for VIV suppression of isolated marine risers and tendons. The center-to-center distance of the two cylinders was 3.0D. The uniform flow with a velocity ranging from 0.05 m/s to 1.0 m/s was generated by towing the cylinder models along the tank. Experimental results, including the displacement amplitude, the dominant frequency, the dominant mode, and the mean drag force coefficient, were summarized and discussed. For the case where only one cylinder in the two-cylinder system had helical strakes, the experimental results indicated that helical strakes can remarkably reduce the flow-induced vibration (FIV) of the staked cylinder. For the case of two straked cylinders in a side-by-side arrangement, it was found that the performance of helical strakes in suppressing the FIV is as good as that for the isolated cylinder.