Strain-based fatigue life analysis of pipelines with external defects under cyclic internal pressure

Gouge and dent are common mechanical defects in oil and gas pipelines. These defects with plastic strain cause stress concentration in the pipelines. Plastic strain is dependent on initial deformation and spring-back behavior of materials. Therefore, they reduce the fatigue life of pipelines. In this paper, the strain-base fatigue life analysis is investigated in pipelines with smooth dent or combination smooth dent and gouge defects under cyclic internal pressure. For this purpose, elastic-plastic multilinear isotropic hardening finite element simulation was used to investigate the effects of various factors, such as residual stress of dent, amplitude internal pressure, pipe geometry, gouge geometry, and smooth dent geometry on stress concentration factor (SCF). Finally, a new method is proposed for predicting the fatigue life of pipelines with uniform dent and uniform dent and gouge combination defects. The model is presented based on the Smith-Watson-Topper (SWT) criterion. A set of fatigue life test specimens with various pipe materials, size and geometry were prepared and tested. The specimens carried a smooth dent, as well as a combination of smooth dent and gouge defects, results of which were collected to validate those obtained based on the proposed model. The results of the predicted tests using the developed formula showed a good correlation to practical experiments.

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Fatigue Life Analysis of Steel Pipelines With Plain Dents Under Cyclic Internal Pressure

2008 7th International Pipeline Conference, Volume 4 ◽

10.1115/ipc2008-64690 ◽

2008 ◽

Author(s):

Bianca de Carvalho Pinheiro ◽

Ilson Paranhos Pasqualino ◽

Se´rgio Barros da Cunha

Keyword(s):

Finite Element ◽

Fatigue Life ◽

Stress Concentration ◽

Internal Pressure ◽

Fatigue Tests ◽

Small Scale ◽

Concentration Factors ◽

Life Analysis ◽

Fatigue Life Analysis ◽

Stress Concentration Factors

This work is within an ongoing study, which aims to propose a new methodology for fatigue life analysis of steel pipelines with plain dents under cyclic internal pressure. This methodology follows the current high cycle fatigue theory and employs stress concentration factors induced by plain dents to modify standard S-N curves. A previously developed and validated finite element model is extended to generate stress concentration factors for longitudinal and transverse dents, in addition to spherical dents. Several finite element analyses are carried out in a parametric study to evaluate stress concentration factors induced by the three dent types studied: spherical, longitudinal and transverse dents. Analytical expressions are developed to estimate stress concentration factors for these three dent types as function of pipe and dent geometric parameters. Small-scale fatigue tests are conducted to evaluate the finite life behavior of dented steel pipes under cyclic internal pressure. The methodology is validated in view of the fatigue tests results. Including expressions to estimate stress concentration factors for three different dent types (spherical, longitudinal and transverse dents), the proposed methodology can then be used for fatigue life analysis of dented steel pipelines under cyclic internal pressure.

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