Fluid Structure Interaction Problems in Deep Water Offshore Engineering Seminar

In the last fifteen years or so, offshore oil & gas engineering has progressively moved into ever deeper waters. Fifteen years ago, a water depth of 300m would be regarded as very deep; now oil and gas developments take place further away from the shoreline in water depths greater than 2000m. Whilst the classic topics such as nonlinear waves and their interaction with floating bodies remain to be interesting problems, new research challenges of perhaps greater practical significance stem from this push into deepwater, i.e. in the area of interaction between ocean currents and slender and flexible line structures which bridge the seabed and the ocean surface. These problems include, for example, (a) vortex-induced vibration of risers; (b) wake-induced instability and riser clashing; (c) suppression of vortex-induced vibration; (d) drag reduction of bluff bodies; (e) dynamics of taut-slack wires. The talk will not aim to offer solutions (in many cases, the solutions are still elusive); instead it will attempt to present/explain some of the challenging aspects of these problems.