Free Vibration Modeling and Computation of Reinforced Thermoplastic Pipe (RTP) Conveying Fluid in Off/Inshore Industry Applications

Institute of Launch Dynamics, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, Jiangsu Province, P. R. China

Abstract

Reinforced Thermoplastic Pipe (RTP) is a composite material flexible pipe. Due to RTP superior behavior, it encouraged the industry for using to offshore and inshore applications. Marine risers and cross-country pipelines resting on elastic medium are slender flexible structures conveying fluid and exhibit complex dynamic behaviors. Therefore, it requires accurate dynamic modeling for prediction the vibration characteristics. Transfer Matrix Method for Multibody Systems (MSTMM) is one of the sophisticated methods that can be used efficiently to model large systems and calculate its vibration characteristics and dynamic responses. The size of matrices in MSTMM remains small regardless of the number of elements in the model. Having smaller matrix sizes helps to have less computational expense leading to a faster answer. Based on the MSTMM advantages and Euler-Bernoulli linear theory, transfer matrix of the pipe in both offshore and inshore industry applications is built-up for vibration analysis. Recursive eigenvalue search algorithm is used to determine the system frequencies. Numerical examples are performed to validate with those published in the open literature.