Investigation of the steel catenary riser length on its structural behavior in deep water

Nowadays there is more need for oil and gas exploration and production activities in deepwaters. This necessitates more modern technologies and studies on deepwater environmental conditions and relevant challenges. The main subjects of these challenges are offshore equipments, specially the riser systems. Steel Catenary Riser (SCR) is a preferred solution for deepwater fields. There are many parameters affecting risers performance such as: floater motions, mooring system, interactions with seabed, riser material, length of the riser and etc. The goal of this paper is to investigate how the riser length affects the riser responses and its overall structural behavior. To do this, different riser models are examined in OrcaFlex software and the results are discussed. All model properties such as environmental conditions, riser material and vessel type are the same and the only difference is the length of the riser. Present study shows that the riser performance is highly affected by its length. By decreasing the riser length, touch down point (TDP) positions changes and effective tension increases and curvature, bending, axial and Von Mises stress decreases.