TRAVELING WAVE RESPONSE IN FULL-SCALE DRILLING RISER VIV MEASUREMENTS

The dominance of traveling wave VIV response is observed in full-scale measured drilling riser data for the first time. This paper presents the novel methods developed to identify the presence of traveling versus standing wave riser structural response in the full-scale data and the observations. This paper reports on some of the work conducted under the most recently completed phase of the Deep Star JIP (Phase 9). The paper uses four different novel methods to identify the presence of traveling versus standing wave structural response in data obtained from a full-scale Gulf of Mexico drilling riser during a loop current event. The techniques are: 1) Observation of RMS accelerations between synchronized accelerometers. 2) Observation of filtered displacements between synchronized accelerometers (using a new post-processing synchronization technique); 3) Displacement versus angular rate phase diagrams; and 4) Derivation of upward/downward curvature components via an algorithm proposed by two of the co-authors. High level conclusions are drawn about the structural response types. Recommendations for future instrumentation campaigns are made.