FLEXIBLE PIPES UNDER THE ACTION OF EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL FLOW: A THEORETICAL-EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION

• Grant number: 25/22121-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: November 01, 2025
• End date: January 31, 2027
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Naval and Oceanic Engineering - Marine and Ocean Structures
• Principal Investigator: Celso Pupo Pesce
• Grantee: Roberto Costa Ceccato
• Host Institution: Escola Politécnica (EP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 22/00770-0 - Nonlinear dynamics applied to engineering problems, AP.TEM

Abstract

Inspired by current fluid-structure interaction problems in deep-sea water intake risers, currently in vogue for cooling oil and gas processing plants on FPSOs, and by divergence and fluttering instabilities in flexible piping used in the excavation of caverns in salt rock domes, this paper presents a research project that will utilize an extensive experimental database collected and analyzed as part of the doctoral research of candidate Wagner Antonio Defensor Filho, under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Celso P. Pesce. The doctoral project focused on the experimental investigation of clamped flexible pipes, with internal flow and occasionally external flow, therefore subject to vortex-induced vibrations (VIV). Its main objective was to build a solid experimental database that will serve as a paradigmatic source for computational models involving these fluid-structure interaction phenomena, including those under development at the Offshore Mechanics Laboratory of the Polytechnic School of USP. The study enabled unprecedented experiments in test tanks and fostered the development of reduced-order computational models, as well as their comparison with higher-order computational models (FEM). This research project aims to continue the experimental analysis of this vast database and to improve the developed computational models, particularly exploring the representation of large-amplitude responses in supercritical conditions, which occur in long flexible hoses under discharge conditions and which have been observed and measured experimentally. (AU)