The design of steel catenary risers (SCRs) is mainly affected by fatigue performance in the touchdown zone (TDZ), where the riser cyclically interacts with the seabed. This cyclic motion leads to seabed soil softening and remoulding. However, over an extended period of riser operations, the seabed soil undergoes a drainage because of small motion amplitudes of the floating vessel during calm weather or a limited contact with the seabed due to vessel relocation. This may cause recovery of the soil strength associated with excess pore pressure dissipation resulting in an extra fatigue damage accumulation in the TDZ. In the current study, a global SCR analysis has been conducted using a series of coded springs along the TDZ to model advanced SCR-seabed interactions. The instantaneous undrained shear strength of the soil is determined by using a recently developed effective stress framework. The effects of soil remolding and consolidation were integrated during both the dynamic motion of the SCR and intervening pause periods within the critical-state soil mechanics. The model updates the SCR-soil interaction spring at every time increment of dynamic analysis, calculating the cross- stress range while taking into account the overall configuration of the riser on the seabed. The study showed that the consolidation may result in an increased fatigue damage of about 23 %, which is currently neglected by the existing non-linear SCR-soil interaction models.

This study proposed a novel experimental platform to conduct dynamic loading tests of a truncated model steel catenary riser (SCR) within the touchdown zone (TDZ). The facilities of the platform, including a soil tank, a loading system, and a soil stirring system, are introduced in detail. A steel pipe with the same diameter as the in situ SCR has been used in the laboratory tests to investigate the vertical motion of the pipe and the effect of the trench on the lateral motion. As the amplitude of the vertical motion increases, the depth of the trench deepens, the bending moment range increases, and the excess pore water pressure at the bottom of the pipeline first accumulates and then dissipates during loading. The development trend of the trench depth and the influence of the soil strength on the SCR bending moment are also studied. During the test, a seabed trench develops, and its shape is similar to that of the in situ trench.

Several studies have incorporated the trench effect into the steel catenary riser's (SCR) fatigue analysis based on two main approaches: artificial insertion of a trench profile in the touchdown zone (TDZ), and automated trench formation using nonlinear hysteretic riser-seabed interaction models. There have been contradictory results with no coherent agreement on the beneficial or detrimental effect of the trench on fatigue life. The current study has been conducted to resolve existing challenges by proposing a reliable methodology by defining an equivalent stiffness to generate a consistent trench profile entirely compatible with the natural curvature of the SCR in the TDZ.

A numerical model for computing the vortex-induced vibration (VIV) and fatigue damage of steel catenary risers (SCRs) was developed. The structural dynamics were accurately simulated using an absolute nodal coordinate formulation (ANCF). The Van der Pol wake oscillator is applied to generate the fluctuating lift, which is further transformed into the cross-flow direction by considering the structural deformation. The Randolph-Quiggin (RQ) model and the Coulomb friction 'bilinear' model are employed to simulate the vertical and lateral riser-soil interactions, respectively. After case validations, the effects of riser-soil interaction on the VIV amplitude, frequency, mode, and fatigue of the SCR at different current angles are investigated, and a sensitivity study of different seabed model parameters is discussed. The bands of significant VIV frequencies were broadened by riser-soil interactions, accompanied by more frequency components of disturbance and more abundant vibration modes. Severe fatigue damage cannot be captured by the truncated model, and seabed models that require improvement are ignored. It is suggested that vertical and lateral riser-soil interactions should be considered in the evaluation of VIV fatigue damage for SCRs.

Steel catenary risers (SCRs) provide a cost-effective solution for deepwater oil and gas production. However, SCRs are susceptible to potential fatigue failure due to the cyclic motions of floating platforms. Previous studies on the physical modelling of cyclic SCR-seabed interactions have primarily focused on either the continuous cyclic motion of an SCR or a single rest period between two SCR motion packets. However, our understanding of the development of seabed trenches and excess pore pressure and their effects on SCR fatigue during multiple episodes of SCR motion and soil reconsolidation remains limited. This study presents a newly developed model container capable of modelling three-dimensional SCR motions including heave, surge, sway, and vortex-induced vibration in a geotechnical centrifuge. A centrifuge test is conducted to investigate the vertical cyclic SCR-seabed interaction, considering five vertical cyclic motion packets with intervening periods of reconsolidation. The results indicate that ignoring the effects of reconsolidation leads to an overestimation of the fatigue life of an SCR. In this test, the SCR fatigue life is reduced by 18%-23% after five episodic SCR motion packets and intervening reconsolidation.

Prediction of the fatigue life of steel catenary risers (SCR) in the touchdown zone is a challenging engineering design aspect of these popular elements. It is publically accepted that the gradual trench formation underneath the SCR due to cyclic oscillations may affect the fatigue life of the riser. However, due to the complex nature of the several mechanisms involving three different domains of the riser, seabed soil, and seawater, there is still no strong agreement on the beneficial or detrimental effects of the trench on the riser fatigue. Seabed soil stiffness and trench geometry play crucial roles in the accumulation of fatigue damage in the touchdown zone. There are several studies about the effect of seabed soil stiffness on fatigue. However, recent studies have proven the significance of trench geometry and identified the touchdown point oscillation amplitude as a key factor. In this study, a boundary layer solution was adapted to obtain the dynamic curvature oscillation of the riser in the touchdown zone on different areas of seabed trenches with a range of seabed stiffness. The proposed analytical model was validated against advanced finite element analysis using a commercial software. A range of seabed stiffness was examined, and the corresponding fatigue responses were compared. It was observed that in the elastic seabed, the effect of soil stiffness is attributed to the curvature oscillation amplitude and to the minimum local dynamic curvature that SCR can take in the touchdown zone. The proposed analytical model was found to be a simple and reliable tool for riser configuration studies with trench effects, particularly at the early stages of riser engineering design practice.

The steel catenary riser (SCR) serves as a primary solution for deep-water oil and gas field development, but it encounters complex dynamics due to forced oscillations induced by wave-driven floater motions, especially at the touch-down zone (TDZ). Traditional pipe-soil models often fail to address these challenges, as they do not account for soil remoulding and the impact of irregular motion. This is particularly relevant in real sea states characterized by irregular waves, where the floater's movements have a significant impact on seabed trenching, thus complicating the dynamic responses of the SCR. To address these issues, this study integrates an innovative effective-stress-based pipe-soil interaction model into a global SCR analysis to explore its dynamic response and fatigue damage under irregular waves. The irregular movements of the floater, derived from response amplitude operator (RAO) data and wave spectra, are applied to the SCR's top end after a translation to the hang off location. This allows for dynamic simulations that consider the evolution of the seabed and the process of trenching. The study focuses on deriving the dynamic stresses experienced by the SCR at the TDZ and evaluating fatigue damage using the S-N curve method. It also examines the seabed interaction, including the evolution of trenching, changes in seabed stiffness, and soil resistance at various SCR locations. By considering real sea conditions, this study yields insights into trenching and seabed-SCR interactions, promising to enhance design methodologies and bolster offshore infrastructure performance and safety.