Post-failure simulation of lazy-wave risers

Abstract

Even with great advances in methods for analysis and design of marine risers, structures still fail, resulting in their rupture and fall on the seabed. The fall can cause high environmental and economic costs, compromising the lifespan of other neighboring structures, such as other risers, anchoring systems, and submarine equipment. Therefore, this work aims to study the fall of flexible lazy-wave risers. The influence of the integration algorithm and the time step in the accuracy and efficiency will be studied, as this work deals with the computational modeling of the post-failure phenomenon, focusing at describing an effective way of assessing the fall trajectory, fall time, and the riser accommodation on the seabed. These are important outputs to better understand the fall phenomenon, generating important results aiming at mitigating damage in the case of accidents in future riser projects.