Fatigue Fracture Mechanics Modeling and Structural Integrity Assessment of Offshore Welded Tubular Joints

Evaluation of the structural integrity of offshore structures requires information on the reliability of nondestructive testing, the accuracy of fatigue crack growth modeling and other data. The University College London Underwater NDE Centre has been set up to provide information on the effectiveness and reliability of different nondestructive testing methods. To achieve this aim, a large library of cracked specimens will be assembled. In the preliminary phase of producing this library, a series of large-scale welded tubular joints were fatigue tested and the crack growth was fully monitored with the ACPD technique. This paper will describe briefly the background to the crack library and present the data obtained from fatigue tests. It will also describe a new model for fatigue crack growth prediction in tubular joints using fracture mechanics. This model allows the prediction of the size effect noted previously in the stress/life curves for tubular joints.