FORCE AND STABILITY MEASUREMENTS ON MODELS OF SUBMERGED PIPELINES

Force and stability measurements on models of submerged pipelines were made to study the effect of currents on pipe anchored just above the ocean floor. Lift, drag, and stability of two parallel pipes, parallel to a flat plane (the sea floor), were measured for simulated ocean currents up to 2 knots at several subcritical, free stream Reynolds numbers. First, a wind tunnel was utilized to find the lift and drag coefficients on two parallel, rigid, cylindrical models. The effects of horizontal spacing, vertical spacing from the ground plane, and orientation angle of the horizontal free stream velocity were observed. Those results were compared to data available for the single and double cylinder cases where the ground plane was absent. Second, a water tow tank was utilized to observe conditions for eddy-shedding induced vibrations for fixed-end, flexible, parallel cylinders. The natural frequencies and buoyancies of these models simulated pipelines of reasonable span clamped to evenly spaced anchor blocks. A numerical example illustrates the use of these data in design problems.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Held in Houston, Texas, April 22-24, 1970.
• Corporate Authors:

  Offshore Technology Conference (2nd)

  6200 North Central Expressway
  Dallas, TX  United States  75206
• Authors:
  • Wilson, J F
  • Caldwell, H M
• Publication Date: 1970-4

Media Info

• Pagination: p. 747-758
• Serial:
  • Volume: 1

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Construction; Pipelines; Structural design
• Old TRIS Terms: Pipeline construction; Pipeline design
• Subject Areas: Construction; Design; Marine Transportation; Pipelines; Terminals and Facilities;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00056218
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: American Petroleum Institute
• Report/Paper Numbers: OTC #1224 Preprint
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jul 15 1974 12:00AM