Vortex Induced Vibration of Free Span Pipeline – CFD Simulation

VIV can cause fatigue damage to the pipeline due to excessive vibration in the long run. The effect of VIV on different pipe conditions are assessed using Three Dimensional (3D) Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) ANSYS software. Different geometries of pipe were modelled for different Reynolds numbers. This study presents the three-dimensional (3D) simulation result concerning the effect of pipe diameter at different pipeline span, and the effect of pipeline surface condition towards the vortex induced vibration (VIV) phenomenon on the free span subsea pipeline. In evaluating hydrodynamics forces acting on the pipe, the larger pipe diameter, longer pipe length and coarser pipe surface introduced higher hydrodynamic force on the pipe, in term of drag and lift forces. In term of the development of wake region at pipe aft, the smaller pipe diameter, shorter pipe length, and smoother pipe surface has smaller wake region size. The evaluation of different type of pipe geometries could contribute to the study of pipeline VIV suppression techniques. The study on drag reduction measure on textured pipeline as a VIV suppression device can benefits the industry whereby it can help in mitigating VIV and thus avoid pipeline failure due to fatigue from excessive cyclic loadings.