Deepwater subsea wellheads may be significantly threatened under extreme sea conditions and operations, especially when the seabed is composed of very soft clay properties. A numerical model of a deepwater wellhead system is established using the classic ocean pipe element and nonlinear spring element of ANSYS to examine the behaviors of subsea wellheads in diverse seabed soil. Nonlinear spring elements coded in the APDL language are used to model three types of seabed soils: very soft soil, soft soil, and firm soil. The dynamic and quasi-static behaviors of the wellhead system in the typical coupled and decoupled models of the drilling riser system are particularly investigated in depth. The effects of the nonlinear seabed soil properties on the detailed wellhead are realistically simulated using time domain and extremum analysis. The results show that the softer the seabed soil, the greater the displacement, rotation angle, curvature, and bending moment of deepwater subsea wellheads. When the seabed soil reaches a particular depth, the mechanical characteristics of the wellheads under the three types of seabed soil conditions are almost simultaneously close to zero. Overall, several conclusions reached in this study may provide some useful references for design and stability analysis.
To prevent marine risers' resonance and eliminate potential threats, sufficient inherent dynamic characteristics such as natural frequency, modal displacement, slope, bending moment, and shear are necessary to be calculated and analyzed. However, most studies calculate the natural frequencies and modal displacements directly rather than the modal slopes and forces. The additional calculations of modal slopes and forces likely result in issue complications, time-consuming, or even errors especially when the boundaries at both ends are solved by a finite difference method. To solve the above problems, a state-vector approach is developed herein based on the precise integration method. Two traditional methods, i.e., differential transformation method and finite element method, are utilized to verify the validation of the approach. The modal state vectors of a marine drilling riser, i.e., not only modal displacements but also modal slopes, bending moments, and shears, are studied in detail under four classic cases according to the hard and soft hang-off modes and the deployment and retrieval processes. Besides, the natural frequencies versus the riser suspension lengths are investigated during the deployment and retrieval. The critical resonance suspension lengths of the riser are discussed via a double-peaked sea irregular wave spectrum. Based on the analyses presented in this study and their generic findings, powerful tools can be designed to prevent riser resonance and associated threats in operation.
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