Experimental and numerical studies on dynamic stress and curvature in steel tube umbilicals

The present paper addresses the stresses in dynamic steel tube umbilicals at the platform hang-off exposed to large motions corresponding to an extreme storm condition. Experimental tests were carried out by mounting fibre-optic Braggs inside steel tubes of a 9 m long umbilical specimen. Then the specimen was exposed to constant tension and dynamic curvature by means of a bell-mouth and the stresses were measured. Realizing that the geometry of the umbilical cross section was too complex to apply full 3D modeling, a beam and penalty contact modeling procedure was applied to describe the extreme stress behavior. Then a simplified method was proposed to determine the contact stiffness which was further validated by full scale umbilical axial stiffness testing. As hoop contact interfaces between steel tubes and separation fillers were observed in the test specimen, a tailor-made contact element was formulated to facilitate hoop contact. Different modeling alternatives were used to investigate the hoop contact effect on the extreme axial stress and Coulomb friction stress range, which were further validated against measured dynamic axial stress. Good correlation was found by the combination of describing all contact interfaces and constraints due to the grooves in the inner sheath.