Riser Dynamic Analysis Using WKB-Based Dynamic Stiffness Method

Abstract

Risers are fluid conduits from subsea equipment to surface floating production platforms. The integrity of a riser system plays a very important role in deepwater developments. Riser dynamic analysis is an important part to the system design. This paper investigates riser dynamic analysis using the WKB-Based dynamic stiffness method. This paper first presents a theoretical formulation of the dynamic stiffness method. It then combines the dynamic stiffness method with the WKB theory, which assumes that the coefficients in the differential equation of motion are slowly varying. The WKB-based dynamic stiffness method is derived and a frequency dependent shape function is expressed implicitly. The Wittrick and Williams (W-W) algorithm is further extended to solve eigen value problem for a general non-uniform marine riser. Examples of non-uniform riser are analyzed and the results show the efficiency of this method. In addition, a pipe-in-pipe riser system is analyzed for natural frequencies and mode shapes using the WKB-based dynamic stiffness method with the W-W algorithm. The characteristic of the mode shapes is described for such a riser system.