This paper introduces a new method which is based on multi-body hydrodynamics and Euler–Bernoulli beam assumption to study hydroelastic behaviours of very large floating structures (VLFSs). A continuous VLFS is divided into several modules, being multi-module floating structures. The section between two adjacent modules’ centre is seen as a beam element. Based on the above assumption, the six-degree-of-freedom motion of a module's centre is both affected by the hydrodynamic interaction with its adjacent module and restricted by the deformation condition of the equivalent beam between two modules. Then the motion equation of the equivalent multi-module floating structures can be established utilising the potential flow theory and Euler–Bernoulli beam hypothesis. The results calculated by the present method are compared with experimental results and numerically calculated data by three-dimensional hydroelastic theory, which shows rather good agreement.

Vortex-induced vibration (VIV) in oscillatory flow is experimentally investigated in the ocean basin. The test flexible cylinder was forced to harmonically oscillate in various combinations of amplitude and period with Keulegan-Carpenter ($KC$) number between 26 and 178 in three different maximum reduced velocities, $URmax=4$, $URmax=6.5$, and $URmax=7.9$ separately. VIV responses at cross-flow (CF) direction are investigated using modal decomposition and wavelet transformation. The results show that VIV in oscillatory flow is quite different from that in steady flow; features, such as intermittent VIV, hysteresis, amplitude modulation, and mode transition (time sharing) are observed. Moreover, a VIV developing process including “building-up,” “lock-in,” and “dying-out” in oscillatory flow, is further proposed and analyzed.

A frequency capture phenomenon in which the dominant response frequency of the downstream cylinder is the same as that of the upstream cylinder despite the differences in their physical characteristics was recently experimentally identified. The mechanism of this phenomenon is investigated by flow around two cylinders with unequal diameters undergoing flow-induced vibrations (FIV) using the open-source code OpenFOAM. Two FIV systems, a large stationary/vibrating upstream cylinder and vibrating downstream cylinder, are used for the simulation. The cylinders are free to vibrate in both the in-line and cross-flow directions. The forgetting factor least squares algorithm is applied for the time-varying excitation mechanism analysis. Simulation results show that the response of the downstream cylinder has a larger amplitude and contains multi-frequency components than the vortex-induced vibration of an isolated cylinder, making its trajectory more complicated. Simulations confirm that the frequency capture phenomenon is induced by the action of the upstream shedding vortex on the downstream cylinder. The energy transfers from vorticity to the structure when the frequency capture phenomenon occurs. The response of the downstream cylinder comprises a significant component of the vortex shedding frequency of the upstream cylinder.

Experimental investigations were conducted on a flexible riser with and without helical strakes. A uniform current was obtained by towing a riser model in a tank, and the vortex-induced vibration (VIV) suppression of strakes with different heights and pitches was studied. The experimental results indicate that the response characteristics of a bare riser can be quite distinct from those of a riser with helical strakes, and the suppression performance depends on the geometry of the helical strakes. The VIV responses in the cross-flow (CF) and in-line (IL) directions can be coupled via variations in the tensile force. The fatigue damage in the CF direction is of the same order as that in the IL direction for the bare riser. However, for the riser fitted with helical strakes, the fatigue damage in the CF direction is much smaller than that in the IL direction. The experimental results also confirmed that the strake height has a greater influence on the VIV response than the strake pitch, and the drag exerted on the riser increases with the strake pitch and height.

A model test of a free-hanging riser under vessel motion and uniform current is performed in the ocean basin at Shanghai Jiao Tong University to address four topics: (1) confirm whether vortex-induced vibration (VIV) can happen due to pure vessel motion; (2) to investigate the equivalent current velocity and Keulegan–Carpenter (KC) number effect on the VIV responses; (3) to obtain the correlations for free-hanging riser VIV under vessel motion with VIV for other compliant risers; and (4) to study the similarities and differences with VIV under uniform current. The top end of the riser is forced to oscillate or move, in order to simulate vessel motion or ocean current effects. Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) strain sensors are used to measure the riser dynamic responses. Experimental results confirm that the free-hanging riser will experience significant out-of-plane VIV under vessel motion. Meanwhile, vessel motion-induced VIV responses in terms of response amplitude, response frequency, and cross section trajectories under different test cases are further discussed and compared to those under ocean uniform current. Most importantly, the correlation among VIV response frequency, vortex shedding pairs, and maximum KC number KC_max is revealed. The presented work is supposed to provide useful references for gaining a better understanding on VIV of a free-hanging riser and for the development of future prediction models.