Effects of Strake Coverage and Marine Growth on Flexible Cylinder Vortex-Induced Vibrations¹

This paper presents some results from the recent SHELL tests at the MARINTEK basin. The tests involved towing densely instrumented flexible cylinders at Reynolds numbers up to 220,000. The main objective is to present the experimental results describing the effectiveness of different amounts of strake coverage and to explore the influence of simulated marine growth. The data are presented in terms of cross-flow (CF) response amplitudes and rainflow-counted damage rates due to the combined CF and in-line (IL) bending stresses. All the results are compared with the bare cylinder cases which will be used as a reference to determine how effective the strakes are in suppressing vortex-induced vibrations (VIV) and how this effectiveness can be affected by marine growth. The results show that even small bare sections (missing strakes) can lead to significant VIV response. Finally, the tests revealed that even moderate amounts of marine growth can quickly negate any suppression coming from the strakes.