THE SIMULATION OF THE INTERACTION BETWEEN SCR AND SEABED

The simulating method of the interaction between a steel catenary riser (SCR) and seabed is studied based on an extensible curve beam with a large curvature and a beam on an elastic foundation. The sagbend section and the flowline section of steel catenary risers are modeled by an extensible curve beam with a large curvature and a beam on an elastic foundation respectively. Not only the support and the friction of seabed are taken into account, but also the suction and damping force of seabed are included in the model of the interaction between steel catenary riser and seabed. The results show that the effect of the element length of the model on the analytical result is insignificant and a longer element could be used for the model. Thusly, the analysis is not time-consuming and the memory requirement is not so large by using the model. It is shown that the results computed by the model are consistent to that by commercial code OrcaFlex. But the element length of the model is not sensitive as much as that of OrcaFlex.