Dynamic response of a deepwater riser subjected to combined axial and transverse excitation by the nonlinear coupled model

In offshore engineering long slender risers are simultaneously subjected to both axial and transverse excitations. The axial load is the fluctuating top tension which is induced by the floater’s heave motion, while the transverse excitation comes from environmental loads such as waves. As the time-varying axial load may trigger classical parametric resonance, dynamic analysis of a deepwater riser with combined axial and transverse excitations becomes more complex. In this study, to fully capture the coupling effect between the planar axial and transverse vibrations, the nonlinear coupled equations of a riser’s dynamic motion are formulated and then solved by the central difference method in the time domain. For comparison, numerical simulations are carried out for both linear and nonlinear models. The results show that the transverse displacements predicted by both models are similar to each other when only the random transverse excitation is applied. However, when the combined axial dynamic tension and transverse wave forces are both considered, the linear model underestimates the response because it ignores the coupling effect. Thus the coupled model is more appropriate for deep water. It is also found that the axial excitation can significantly increase the riser’s transverse response and hence the bending stress, especially for cases when the time-varying tension is located at the classical parametric resonance region. Such time-varying effects should be taken into account in fatigue safety assessment.