Vinas-Pich, Jordi; (1994) Influence of environment, loading and steel composition on fatigue of tubular connections. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

A review of the fatigue related problems encountered in the design and maintenance of steel welded tubular connections of the type used in offshore structures is presented. Special emphasis is given to the topics of variable amplitude and corrosion fatigue. A description of a FEA of a tubular T joint subjected to mixed axes loading and a subsequent study on the capability of parametric equations to predict stress distributions along the brace-chord intersection under such loadings is given. It is shown that existing guidelines may lead to underpredictions of stress along the welds. Experimental results obtained from a series of three BS7191:355D steel welded tubular connections subjected to simulated North Sea type load sequence (WASH) in sea water using three different levels of cathodic protection, and three similar BS7191:450F steel joints subjected to the WASH sequence in both air and sea water are also reported. Ancillary fracture mechanics experiments to obtain materials data and fracture mechanics modelling of the fatigue experiments are also described in this thesis. A fracture mechanics software package has been developed that allows accurate predictions of corrosion fatigue crack growth in steel welded tubular connections. It is argued that error margins arising from fracture mechanics modelling are smaller than those arising from experimental measurements such as stress measurements using strain gauges.

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