Drilling Riser Structural Damping Test
EVENT: ISOPE
1 Jun 2012
Existing drilling riser design and vortex induced vibration (VIV) analysis methodology rely on critical assumptions such as damping coefficient to represent the complex dynamic behavior. Comparing field measurements with analytical software results show a fatigue damage bias and hence over conservatism in riser design.
One possible explanation for this is the structural damping inherent in drilling riser systems with choke and kill line and buoyancy. Full scale testing in air was initiated by DeepStar® to quantify and compare structural damping of bare and buoyant drilling riser joints. The objective was to develop guidelines on structural damping value to be utilized in drilling riser design, particularly VIV. This paper presents the results of full scale testing performed on a number of drilling riser pipe configurations to determine the effect that length, mode, frequency, choke and kill lines and buoyancy modules have on structural damping. Results from the full scale testing indicated that there was more structural damping than first expected.
Author
Pete Padelopoulos
Senior Technical Consultant, USA
About
Pete is a Chartered Engineer with over 20 years’ experience in deep water riser design, manufacturing, testing, supply and offshore installation. He has multiple years’ project management experience managing pre-FEED, FEED, detailed design and equipment delivery scopes of work with teams of 5-25 engineers. He has also been seconded to operators as part of the technical site teams responsible for riser equipment delivery.
He has extensive experience with engineering, procurement, construction and installation of subsea and deep-water riser systems (SCR, SLWR, TTR, free-standing, flexible and drilling) with emphasis on component design and specification, package management, fabrication, qualification testing, delivery management and offshore installation. He has personally overseen the delivery of bespoke push-up tensioner system and integrally forged/machined tension joints focusing on the technical oversight of supplier design and complex manufacturing processes of components, overseeing design qualification testing, final assembly and hull integration and commissioning.
Insights
Michael Ritchie
Mike Tognarelli
BP
Jim Chitwood
Deepstar