Morison equation
force
time
Flow forces according to the Morison equation for a body placed
in a harmonic ow, as a function of time. Blue line: drag force;
red line: inertia force; black line: total force according to the
Morison equation. Note that the inertia force is in front of the
phase of the drag force: the ow velocity is a sine wave, while
the local acceleration is a cosine wave as a function of time.
In uid dynamics the Morison equation is a semi-
empirical equation for the inline force on a body in os-
cillatory ow. It is sometimes called the MOJS equa-
tion after all four authorsMorison, O'Brien, Johnson
and Schaafof the 1950 paper in which the equation was
introduced.[1] The Morison equation is used to estimate
the wave loads in the design of oil platforms and other
oshore structures.[2][3]
1 Description
Wave loading on the steel jacket structure of a Production Utilities
Quarters Compression (PUQC) platform in the Rong Doi oil eld,
oshore Vietnam (see Oil megaprojects (2010)).
The Morison equation is the sum of two force com-
ponents: an inertia force in phase with the local ow
acceleration and a drag force proportional to the (signed)
square of the instantaneous ow velocity. The inertia
force is of the functional form as found in potential ow
theory, while the drag force has the form as found for a
body placed in a steady ow. In the heuristic approach of
Morison, O'Brien, Johnson and Schaaf these two force
components, inertia and drag, are simply added to de-
scribe the force in an oscillatory ow.
The Morison equation contains two empirical F = Cm 4 D u + Cd 2 D u |u|.
1
hydrodynamic coecientsan inertia coecient
and a drag coecientwhich are determined from
experimental data. As shown by dimensional analysis
and in experiments by Sarpkaya, these coecients
depend in general on the KeuleganCarpenter number,
Reynolds number and surface roughness.[4][5]
The descriptions given below of the Morison equation are
for uni-directional onow conditions as well as body mo-
tion.
1.1 Fixed body in an oscillatory ow
In an oscillatory ow with ow velocity u(t) , the Mori-
son equation gives the inline force parallel to the ow
direction:[6]
1
F = Cm V u + Cd A u |u|,
| {z } |2 {z }
FI
FD
where
F (t) is the total inline force on the object,
u du/dt is the ow acceleration, i.e. the time
derivative of the ow velocity u(t),
the inertia force FI = Cm V u , is the sum of the
FroudeKrylov force V u and the hydrodynamic
mass force Ca V u,
the drag force FD = 1
2 Cd A u |u| ,
Cm = 1 + Ca is the inertia coecient, and Ca the
added mass coecient,
A is a reference area, e.g. the cross-sectional area of
the body perpendicular to the ow direction,
V is volume of the body.
For instance for a circular cylinder of diameter D in oscil-
latory ow, the reference area per unit cylinder length is
A = D and the cylinder volume per unit cylinder length
is V = 41 D2 . As a result, F (t) is the total force per
unit cylinder length:
2 1
2 5
Besides the inline force, there are also oscillatory lift
forces perpendicular to the ow direction, due to vortex
shedding. These are not covered by the Morison equa-
tion, which is only for the inline forces.
1.2 Moving body in an oscillatory ow
In case the body moves as well, with velocity v(t) , the
Morison equation becomes:[6]
1
+ Cd A (u v) |u v| .
F = V u + Ca V (u v) [2] Gudmestad, Ove T.; Moe, Geir (1996), Hydrodynamic
| {z } | {z } |2 {z }
a b
c
where the total force contributions are:
a: FroudeKrylov force,
b: hydrodynamic mass force,
c: drag force.
Note that the added mass coecient Ca is related to the
inertia coecient Cm as Cm = 1 + Ca .
2 Limitations
The Morison equation is a heuristic formulation of
the force uctuations in an oscillatory ow. The
rst assumption is that the ow acceleration is more-
or-less uniform at the location of the body. For
instance, for a vertical cylinder in surface gravity
waves this requires that the diameter of the cylinder
is much smaller than the wavelength. If the diameter
of the body is not small compared to the wavelength,
diraction eects have to be taken into account.
Second, it is assumed that the asymptotic forms: the
inertia and drag force contributions, valid for very
small and very large KeuleganCarpenter numbers
respectively, can just be added to describe the force
uctuations at intermediate KeuleganCarpenter
numbers. However, from experiments it is found
that in this intermediate regimewhere both drag
and inertia are giving signicant contributionsthe
Morison equation is not capable of describing the
force history very well. Although the inertia and
drag coecients can be tuned to give the correct ex-
treme values of the force.
Third, when extended to orbital ow which is a case
of non uni-directional ow, for instance encountered
by a horizontal cylinder under waves, the Morison
equation does not give a good representation of the
forces as a function of time.[7]
REFERENCES
3 See also
Drag equation
4 Notes
[1] Sarpkaya, T. (1986), Force on a circular cylin-
der in viscous oscillatory ow at low Keulegan
Carpenter numbers, Journal of Fluid Mechan-
ics, 165: 6171, Bibcode:1986JFM...165...61S,
doi:10.1017/S0022112086002999
coecients for calculation of hydrodynamic loads on o-
shore truss structures, Marine Structures, 9 (8): 745758,
doi:10.1016/0951-8339(95)00023-2
[3] Guidelines on design and operation of wave energy con-
verters (PDF). Det Norske Veritas. May 2005. Re-
trieved 2009-02-16.
[4] Sarpkaya, T. (1976), Vortex shedding and resistance in
harmonic ow about smooth and rough circular cylin-
ders, Proceedings of the International Conference on the
Behavior of Oshore Structures, BOSS '76, 1, pp. 220235
[5] Sarpkaya, T. (1977), Vortex shedding and resistance in
harmonic ow about smooth and rough cylinders at high
Reynolds numbers, Monterey: Naval Postgraduate School,
Report No. NPS-59SL76021
[6] Sumer & Fredse (2006), p. 131.
[7] Chaplin, J. R. (1984), Nonlinear forces on a hori-
zontal cylinder beneath waves, Journal of Fluid Me-
chanics, 147: 449464, Bibcode:1984JFM...147..449C,
doi:10.1017/S0022112084002160
5 References
Morison, J. R.; O'Brien, M. P.; Johnson, J. W.;
Schaaf, S. A. (1950), The force exerted by surface
waves on piles, Petroleum Transactions, American
Institute of Mining Engineers, 189: 149154,
doi:10.2118/950149-G
Sarpkaya, T.; Isaacson, M. (1981), Mechanics of
wave forces on oshore structures, New York: Van
Nostrand Reinhold, ISBN 0-442-25402-4
Sumer, B. M.; Fredse, J. (2006), Hydrodynamics
around cylindrical structures, Advanced Series on
Ocean Engineering, 26 (revised ed.), World Scien-
tic, ISBN 981-270-039-0, 530 pages
 3

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