Stress based fatigue life assessment of sintered steels and aluminium under variable amplitude loading

Fatigue life assessment of pipelines and risers is a complex process, involving various uncertainties. The selection of an appropriate fatigue model is important for establishing the inspection intervals and maintenance criteria. In offshore structures, the vortex-induced vibration (VIV) could cause severe fatigue damage in risers and pipelines, resulting in leakage or even catastrophic failure. The industry has customarily used simple fatigue models for fatigue life assessment of pipelines and risers (such as the Paris or Walker models); however, these models were developed based on constant amplitude loading scenarios. In contrast, VIV-induced stress-time history has a variable amplitude nature. The use of the simplified approach (which is inherently non conservative), has necessitated the implementation of large safety factors for fatigue design of pipelines and risers. Moreover, most of the experimental investigations conducted to date with the aim of characterizing the fatigue response of pipelines and risers have been done based on incorporation of constant amplitude loading (CAL) scenarios (which is unrealistic), or converting the variable amplitude loading (VAL) scenarios to an equivalent CAL. This study demonstrates that the use of such approaches would not be lead to accurate assessment of the fatigue response of risers subject to VIV-induced VAL. The experimental investigation performed in this study will also clarify the underlying reasons for the use of large safety factors by the industry when assessing the fatigue life of pipelines and risers. In addition, an experimental investigation was also conducted to highlight the influence of the compressive portion of VIV stress-time history on the fatigue life of such components. It is shown that the compressive stress cycles significantly influence the fatigue crack growth response of risers, and their presence should not be ignored.

Download Full-text

Integral treatment of butt joints for the fatigue life assessment in the low cycle fatigue regime

Welding in the World ◽

10.1007/s40194-020-01006-x ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Benjamin Möller

Keyword(s):

Fatigue Life ◽

Life Assessment ◽

Cyclic Behavior ◽

Cycle Fatigue ◽

Stress Strain ◽

Butt Joints ◽

Variable Amplitude Loading ◽

Fatigue Assessment ◽

Variable Amplitude ◽

Integral Treatment

Abstract The framework for a fatigue assessment of welded joints under service loading conditions of crane structures from the low cycle to the high cycle fatigue regime includes the consideration of elastic-plastic material behavior, variable amplitude loading, and acceptable calculation times. Therefore, an integral treatment of butt joints has been developed for fatigue life estimation. The butt weld is considered in its entirety, so that it can be described by its cyclic behavior. The evaluation of the cyclic stress-strain behavior and tri-linear strain-life curves of butt joints for different high-strength, fine-grained structural steels, derived by strain-controlled fatigue tests, is the basis for this description. This procedure is not limited to conventionally applied gas metal arc welding only, but also the fatigue assessment of laser beam welding is possible, for example. Cyclic transient effects have been analyzed and a distinctive cyclic softening is described by linearization of Ramberg-Osgood parameters, depending on the damage content of each cycle derived from constant amplitude, strain-controlled tests. On the basis of the cyclic behavior in combination with memory and Masing behavior, a simulation of the stress-strain paths of investigated butt welds, under constant and variable amplitude loading, has been performed. Damage parameters are used to accumulate the damage cycle by cycle in order to derive the fatigue lifetime. Finally, calculated fatigue lives were compared with experimentally determined lives, showing the impact of this procedure.

Download Full-text