International audienceSince the beginning of the 21 st century FLow-Induced Pulsations (FLIP) has been more and more experienced. The phenomenon is characterized by an acoustic wave that is created inside of the flexible pipe and that may lead to significant fatigue failure of the adjacent equipment. Flexible pipe integrity is not called into question regarding this phenomenon. In this context, a FLIP joint test involving an Oil Company, a Flexible Pipe supplier and a French research center was conducted end of 2016 at French laboratory in Poitiers. The test was performed in a 6'' internal diameter and 18-meter-long flexible pipe. Both flow directions were tested to assess the influence of the rounded edges of the carcass. On the one hand, this paper presents the experimental test setup and the main results that came out of the test. On the other hand, this paper also presents the comparison between tests results and analytical model outcome. Moreover, combining experiments and theoretical point of view enabled reproducing the phenomenon. A better understanding of the phenomenon will allow flexible pipes suppliers to propose mitigations or cancellation of FLIP to companies

Amielh, Muriel

Charliac, David

Décuupère, Matthieu

Galeron, GaËtan

Karnikian, Alexandre

Mattei, Pierre-Olivier

Roques, Jean-Philippe

English

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Flow Induced Pulsations (FLIP) in 6-inch rough bore
gas flexible pipes Test
Matthieu Décuupère, David Charliac, Jean-Philippe Roques, Alexandre
Karnikian, Gaëtan Galeron, Pierre-Olivier Mattei, Muriel Amielh
To cite this version:
Matthieu Décuupère, David Charliac, Jean-Philippe Roques, Alexandre Karnikian, Gaëtan Galeron, et
al.. Flow Induced Pulsations (FLIP) in 6-inch rough bore gas flexible pipes Test. Offshore Technology
Conference, Apr 2018, Houston, United States. ￿hal-02370307￿
  
OTC-28681-MS 
Flow Induced Pulsations (FLIP) in 6-inch rough bore gas flexible pipes Test  
Matthieu Décuupère - TechnipFMC 
David Charliac - TechnipFMC 
Jean-Philippe Roques - TOTAL E&P 
Alexandre Karnikian - TOTAL E&P 
Gaëtan Galeron - TOTAL E&P 
Pierre-Olivier Mattei - LMA/CNRS 
Muriel Amielh - IRPHE/CNRS 
Copyright 2018, Offshore Technology Conference 
 
This paper was prepared for presentation at the Offshore Technology Conference held in Houston, Texas, USA, 30 April–3 May 2018. 
 
This paper was selected for presentation by an OTC program committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents 
of the paper have not been reviewed by the Offshore Technology Conference and are subject to correction by the author(s). The material does not necessarily reflect 
any position of the Offshore Technology Conference, its officers, or members. Electronic reproduction, distribution, or storage of any part of this paper without the written 
consent of the Offshore Technology Conference is prohibited. Permission to reproduce in print is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words; illustrations may 
not be copied. The abstract must contain conspicuous acknowledgment of OTC copyright. 
 
 
Abstract 
Since the beginning of the 21st century FLow-Induced Pulsations (FLIP) has been more and more experienced. The 
phenomenon is characterized by an acoustic wave that is created inside of the flexible pipe and that may lead to significant 
fatigue failure of the adjacent equipment. Flexible pipe integrity is not called into question regarding this phenomenon. 
In this context, a FLIP joint test involving an Oil Company, a Flexible Pipe supplier and a French research center was conducted 
end of 2016 at French laboratory in Poitiers. The test was performed in a 6’’ internal diameter and 18-meter-long flexible pipe. 
Both flow directions were tested to assess the influence of the rounded edges of the carcass. 
On the one hand, this paper presents the experimental test setup and the main results that came out of the test. On the other 
hand, this paper also presents the comparison between tests results and analytical model outcome. Moreover, combining 
experiments and theoretical point of view enabled reproducing the phenomenon. A better understanding of the phenomenon 
will allow flexible pipes suppliers to propose mitigations or cancellation of FLIP to companies. 
 
  
2  OTC-28681-MS 
Introduction 
Since the early 2000’s natural gas platforms were more and more subject to Flow Induced Pulsations (FLIP). 
Moreover, Oil&Gas Companies requirements in terms of flow rates have been increasing each year growing up since the first 
FLIP experience and for the last few years natural gas field exploitation is drastically increasing. In this context, a partnership 
between an Oil Company, a Flexible Pipe supplier and a French research center was created at the beginning of 2016 to set up 
a FLIP test on an industrial scale. This partnership allows on the first hand the Oil Company a better understanding of FLIP 
phenomenon and on the other hand allows the Flexible Pipe supplier to improve their flexible pipe carcass design. A French 
laboratory in Poitiers was qualified to perform this FLIP test, because of their knowledge in acoustics, aero-acoustics and 
adapted air test facilities. This collaboration aimed at studying the influence of flow direction and pressure (i.e. density) on 
FLIP onset velocities and frequencies. The present paper presents the whole test campaign, test setup and test results versus 
predicted values. 
 
Context 
FLIP only concerns: 
1. Rough bore flexible pipes (i.e. gas export, gas lift and flowline): see Figure 1. 
2. Dry gas flows, with less than one percent in volume of free liquid phase 
3. All kind of flexible pipes configurations (i.e. lazy-wave, free-hanging etc …) 
As a reminder, the so-called FLIP phenomenon may be characterized by high tonal noises up to 110 dB on platforms 
resulting in high vibrations levels of small piping either on topsides or on subsea equipments. This phenomenon was first 
experienced on Norvegian platforms in early 2000 and lazy wave rough bore flexible pipe had to be replaced by a patented 
solution: The Smooth Bore Gas Export (SBGE) [Ref. 1]. The SBGE has an inner surface completely smooth because of the 
plastic liner that is the first layer instead of a classic interlocked carcass. 
 
 
Figure 1 – Typical rough bore flexible pipe build up 
 
 
  
OTC-28681-MS  3 
FULL SCALE TEST 
Test description: 
The test was prepared and conducted in 2016 at a French laboratory in Poitiers which is a facility to conduct air flow tests. The 
first aim of the test was to reproduce and experience the singing phenomenon in an actual flexible pipe with real end-fittings. 
The second aim of the test was to study the influence of the flow direction and pressure on the initiation of the singing. To 
achieve these two main goals different mass flow rates and different pressures had to be tested with dry air. Test facility is 
presented in Figure 2. 
 
Figure 2 – Overview of the test facility 
Tested flexible pipe was eighteen meters-long with an internal diameter of six inch. Because of its length not all laboratories 
were able to receive such flexible pipe and adjacent measuring spoolds, with a total length of approximately forty meters. 
 
Test monitoring: 
To achieve the test campaign different sensors were utilized to capture the singing phenomenon. At the downstream and 
upstream end-fittings two measuring spools were attached. Each measuring spool was equipped with (see Figure 3): 
1. Acoustic probes microphones 
2. Acoustic probes 
3. Hot wire probes 
4. Static pressure probes 
5. Temperature probe 
 
Figure 3 – Measuring spool equipped with its probes 
  
4  OTC-28681-MS 
Figure 4 shows a cross-section of the flexible pipe between its measuring system that includes acoustic probes microphones 
(MGi with i going from 1 to 6) and hot wire probes. Acoustic probes microphones were installed in line on the top of the 
measuring spools and hot wire probes were installed at 90° from the acoustic probes microphones. Since pressure and velocity 
are dual quantities measuring them respectively thanks to acoustic and hot wire probes enables a complete understanding of 
the nature of the acoustic wave. 
 
Figure 4 – Sketch of measuring system (acoustic and hot wire probes) 
Full scale test setup: 
Figure 5 presents a sketch of the test setup, air was flowing out of the pressurized reservoir inside different pipings 
(approximately forty meters) before reaching the first acoustic measuring spool and flexible pipe. Pressure levels inside of the 
flexible pipe were controlled thanks to a pressure control valve as shown in Figure 5. To fulfill the test setup mass flow rate 
had to be imposed at a fixed value, pressure was swept from high value down to small values to get an increasing flow velocity 
inside of the flexible pipe.  
 
Figure 5 – Test setup overview and pressure control valve 
Table 1 describes the range of pressure and mass flow rate tested. 
 Qm [kg.s-1] P [bar] ρ [kg.m-3] 
Mini 0 1 1.2 
Maxi 8.3 40 46 
Table 1 – test matrix 
More than thirty triplets (P, T, Qm) have been tested. 
 
Flexible pipe was installed straight on it support such as shown in Figure 6. 
 
Figure 6 – Flexible pipe in test  
OTC-28681-MS  5 
Test results:  
Fluctuating signals post-processing 
Two hot-wires (HW1 and HW2, See Figure 4) are positioned on the axis of each coupler located just upstream and downstream 
of the rough bore flexible pipe. These probes are sensitive both to velocity turbulence and acoustics velocity. They detected the 
emergence of FLIP from the turbulence background with increasing flow rate. Figure 7 illustrates the evolution of the Power 
Spectral Density (PSD) estimated from velocity hot-films signals when the reference velocity increases from 50 to 70 m.s-1. 
Upstream hot-wire signal PSDs display many frequencies, associated with the supplying system including air compressor and 
some bends on the upstream piping. Whereas these large peaks are not detected anymore on the PSDs of downstream hot-wire 
signal HW2, sharp peaks are highlighted when the velocity reaches around 60 m.s-1. These singular frequencies (1250, 2150, 
2600 Hz) are related to the FLIP phenomenon and are confirmed by the following acoustic pressure analyses. 
 
Figure 7 - – For an 80° aperture of control valve - PSD of velocity signals from upstream and downstream hot-wires (test 13, 
1.1bar<Pupstream<1.6 bar) 
Simultaneous acquisitions of microphone signals (MGi) are performed with hot-wire signals so that velocity and acoustic 
pressure can be jointly analysed. The post-processing of recorded acoustic signals reveals that, during the FLIP, the strong 
acoustics field (170 dB SPL) inside the riser is associated with frequencies identified as the transverse acoustic resonance of 
the pipe (i.e. 1250 Hz, 2110 Hz and 2650 Hz). The specificity of the FLIP in the present investigated conditions is the significant 
intermittency in time and frequency of this sound field. Therefore, Gabor-wavelet tools are used to investigate time-frequency 
characteristics (Figure 8), while Hilbert transform analysis aims at catching the fine structure of the whistling (Figure 9). 
 
Figure 8 – Gabor analysis during maximum whistling recorded on microphone MG6 
  
6  OTC-28681-MS 
 
The Gabor wavelet time-frequency analysis (Figure 8) clearly shows that the acoustic signal is composed of two main frequency 
components around the first transverse modes of the riser (i.e. 1250 Hz and 2500 Hz for a riser with constant radius R=7.62 
cm). It is also obvious that this whistling process has significant variations in time and frequency. To complete the analysis, a 
Hilbert transform of the signal filtered around the first mode is applied to compute its instantaneous frequency [Ref 3]. The 
result is given in Figure 9 for the signal of the microphone MG4. In that case, the amplitude is normalised to the maximum 
recorded during that interval and the curve is plotted with a varying intensity of the shades of grey corresponding to its 
amplitude in Figure 9. The intermittency on amplitude and frequency is highlighted and one observes that higher amplitudes 
are associated to lower frequency excursions. Note that the frequency fluctuates around that of the first transversal mode (f  
[1190; 1290] Hz) with a fluctuation corresponding quite exactly to the variation of the inner radius caused by the corrugation 
(R  [7.4; 8.1] cm). 
 
 
Figure 9 – Instantaneous amplitude and frequency during the whistling phase recorded on microphone MG4. 
 
 
 
  
OTC-28681-MS  7 
Post-processing via pressure loss analysis 
Complete signals post-processing is not necessarily mandatory to detect FLIP onset. Measuring pressure difference 
between inlet and outlet of the flexible pipe allows quantification of the total energy loss along the flexible pipe. The 
total energy loss may include viscous, thermal, acoustic and radiated losses depending on whether FLIP is already 
initiated or not. Thermal losses are negligible relative to of other losses and since amplitude acoustic reflection 
coefficient were close to unity, radiated losses are close to nul. Therefore, if the measured pressure drop is greater than 
the pre-estimated viscous losses one may tell that FLIP is initiated. Viscous losses are calculated thanks to an in-house 
model. This statement may be expressed as follows: 
 
𝐹𝐿𝐼𝑃 𝑜𝑐𝑐𝑢𝑟𝑠 𝑖𝑓 ∆𝑃𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒𝑑 >  ∆𝑃𝑣𝑖𝑠𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑠 . 
 
Figure 9 shows the application of this concept by plotting ΔPmeasured-ΔPviscous versus average flow velocity. It may be 
noticed that as long as FLIP is not initiated ΔPmeasured-ΔPviscous remains quasi-constant and almost equal to 0 J/m3. 
ΔPmeasured-ΔPviscous is not exactly equal to zero as long as FLIP is not initiated because all parameters are averaged along 
the flexible pipe. 
 
 
Figure 9 – (ΔPmeasured - ΔPviscous) versus U at 1 bara 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
Δ
P
m
ea
su
re
d
-Δ
P
v
is
c
o
u
s 
(J
/m
3
) 
8  OTC-28681-MS 
Test results versus model results 
To predict and compare test results the model approached in [Ref. 2] was utilized. The first part of Figure 10 shows 
the synthesis of all test results compared with calculated onset velocities. Calculated onset velocities values show in 
Figure 10 were refined thanks to CFD (bottom part of Figure 10) to consider the actual carcass shape and flow 
conditions. In the upper part of Figure 10, three kinds of family are plotted: 
1. Green circles: results from model approached in [Ref. 2] where FLIP is NOT identified and confirmed by 
signals post-processing. For each gree point, actual flow velocity inside of the rough bore flexible pipe was 
equal or lower than identified FLIP onset velocity. For example, for the green point with the (a) mark, the 
flow velocity inside of the rough bore flexible pipe was lower than the calculated onset velocity, which means 
that FLIP onset is not reached and was not identified on the spectrograms. 
2. Yellow circles: results from model approached in [Ref. 2] where FLIP is probably identified and confirmed 
by signals post-processing. For each yellow point, actual flow velocity inside of the rough bore flexible pipe 
was around identified FLIP onset velocity. 
3. Red circles: results from model approached in [Ref. 2] where FLIP is identified and confirmed by signals 
post-processing. For each red point, actual flow velocity inside of the rough bore flexible pipe was equal or 
greater than identified FLIP onset velocity. For example, for the red point with the (b) mark, the flow velocity 
inside of the rough bore flexible pipe was much higher than the calculated onset velocity, which means that 
FLIP onset is largely exceeded. 
The reference line corresponds to Utest = Ucalcultated. 
 
 
Figure 10 – Test vs model results / Vortex tracking during time 
 
 
(b) 
(a) 
OTC-28681-MS  9 
Conclusion 
 
As a conclusion, FLIP phenomenon was successfully reproduced with an actual complete rough bore flexible pipe on 
an industrial scale with dry air. Thanks to an adequate and accurate monitoring great lessons were drawn either on FLIP 
phenomenon in general or on the acoustic nature of the phenomenon itself. 
Rough bore flexible pipe experienced FLIP on its transverse modes for pressures close to atmospheric. 
Thanks to this test model approached in [Ref. 2] is not called into question in terms of onset velocities and frequencies. 
A simple approach consisting in evaluating viscous pressure losses allowed confirmation of onset velocities. 
The whole test campaign was a success thanks to the commitment of the different stakeholders that are involved in 
the partnership. 
 
Acknowledgements 
The authors acknowledge TechnipFMC, TOTAL and CNRS (LMA and IRPHE) for allowing them to prepare this paper, 
CESAME for their test facilities disposal and Bureau Veritas Paris for their test witnesses. 
 
Nomenclature 
 
CFD  Computational Fluid Dynamics 
CNRS  Centre National de Recherche Scientifique (National French R&D center) 
FLIP  FLow Induced Pulsations 
PSD  Power Spectral Density 
SBGE  Smooth Bore Gas Export 
SPL  Sound Pressure Level 
ΔPmeasured Total energy losses along flexible pipe 
ΔPviscous  Energy losses along flexible pipe only due to wall viscous forces 
 
Références 
 
[Ref. 1] OTC2007-18703, SmoothBore Flexible Riser for Gas Export, T Crome, E Binet, S Mjøen 
[Ref. 2] M. Décuupère, D. Charliac, S. Legeay. OMAE 2017-61324, Flow Induced Pulsations (FLIP) in rough bore gas 
flexible pipes, tests and model. 
[Ref. 3] B. Boashash, Parts 1 and 2, Proc. IEEE 80(4) (1992), pp. 520-568, Estimating and interpreting the instantaneous 
frequency of a signal 
 


Flow Induced Pulsations (FLIP) in 6-inch rough bore gas flexible pipes Test

Galeron, Gaëtan

HAL AMU

https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02370307/file/OTC-28681-MS.pdf

Flow Induced Pulsations (FLIP) in 6-inch rough bore gas flexible pipes Test

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