Analysis of Rigid Body Swing Effect on SCR Response under Top Motion and Wave Action

The catenary riser such as steel catenary riser (SCR), under wave action or current action, shows a kind of rotation that acts as a rigid body along a similarly fixed axis of oscillation determined by the varying suspension and touch down point, respectively. The characteristics of acceleration of catenary riser influenced by rigid body swing integrity backwards and forwards (RBSIBF) in cross direction cannot be neglected. Based on the large deflection slender beam model, top motion of x direction, RBSIBF, and wave force model, this manuscript studies and explains effect of RBSIBF in cross direction (z direction) on riser in quantitative and qualitative perspectives. The rigid body wiggle effect can be considered by amplitude-value multiplication with the safety factor of 1.2. The calculation shows that, in terms of the overall motion pattern, the motion response in the xy plane develops gradually from the narrow amplitude wiggle in in-line direction of top region to narrow amplitude wiggle in vertical direction of bottom area. Wave load is the main effect load in cross-flow direction. Along the depth increase, the acceleration amplitude of the top hanging point area is maximum, and the amplitude decreases most strongly or violently. With the decrease of case amplitude, the structural acceleration responses of node 10th to 80th significantly reduced by about 30% and the corresponding of node 140th to 200th increased by about 15%. The most influential point of RBSIBF on acceleration is node 200th with an influence level of about 20%. When the structure mainly rotates in the xz plane, rigid body wiggle and swing are positively correlated with rotation vector diameter. The rigid body wiggle and swing increase acceleration of structure. In the rotational yz plane of the structure, rigid body wiggle and swing reduce acceleration response.