Fatigue Characteristic Analysis of Deepwater Steel Catenary Risers at the Touchdown Point

This paper presents fatigue characteristic analysis of a deepwater steel catenary riser (SCR) under ambient excitations. The SCR involves complex nonlinear dynamic behaviors, especially at the touchdown point (TDP) where the riser first touches the seafloor. Owing to the significant interaction with soil, the touchdown zone is difficult to be modeled. Based on Lumped-Mass method and P-y curve, nonlinear springs are used to simulate the SCR-seabed coupled interaction. In case studies, an SCR's dynamic features have been obtained by transient analysis and the stricture fatigue assessment has been carried out by S-N approach. The comparative analysis shows that the TDP is the key location where soil-riser interaction rises steeply and minimum fatigue life occurs. Parameters such as ocean environment loads, vessel motions, riser material and geometric parameters are discussed. The results indicate that the vessel motion is the principal factor for the structure fatigue life distribution.