Effects of Marine Growth on Hydrodynamic Coefficients of Rigid Tubular Cylinders

In this paper the wave induced hydrodynamic forces and the corresponding hydrodynamic coefficients for a 42 mm diameter model pipe subjected to regular waves was investigated experimentally and the results were compared with the responses of a similar rigid cylinder fitted with marine growth. The main objective of this study was to quantify the effects of marine growth on the hydrodynamic forces experimentally and determine the associated hydrodynamic coefficients. The experimental data were generated from a set of wave tank model tests and the results were scaled up using a scale factor of 1:55. The thickness of marine growth applied on the model pipe was varied with respect to the water depth in the ratio of 3:2:1. Regular waves were generated with wave heights ranging from 0.02 m to 0. 2 m for modal period varying from 0.6 s to 3.25 s. The tests were conducted for Keulegan-Carpenter number ranging from 3.9 to 23.3. The findings of the experimental results revealed that increasing the thickness of the full scale prototype cylinder by 110 mm due to marine growth fittings, has increased the overall wave hydrodynamic forces by 16 to 90% depending on the wave heights and the wave frequencies at which the model was tested, proving that the drag coefficients have considerably increased.