Fatigue Design Data Derived From Full Scale Tests on 6”OD Pipe Girth Welds

Author(s):  
Per J. Haagensen ◽  
Hans Olav Knagenhjelm ◽  
Oddvin O̸rjasæter

A literature survey of high quality girth welds intended for pipelines risers was carried out and the results are compared with full scale resonance fatigue test data on 6” pipes. The samples were made from 168.3×9.9mm (OD×WT) seamless pipes, each having two welds. Axial misalignments (hi-lo’s) and lack of penetration (LOP) defects were introduced in the test pipes to study the effects on the mean minus 2 stand, deviation design S-N curve that was calculated. Post failure examination of the welds was performed to determine the type and size of defects in the failure initiation area. Fracture mechanics calculations were carried out to determine the effect of defects on fatigue life. The test results were compared with published data on 6” pipes with high quality welds. The scatter in the fatigue test data was reduced when comparisons were based on the local stress at the point of fracture initiation. The implications for design rules of the findings in this work are discussed.

Author(s):  
Julien Fontanabona ◽  
Ky Dang Van ◽  
Vincent Gaffard ◽  
Zied Moumni ◽  
Paul Wiet

Pipeline dents fatigue life prediction is a subject of high interest for pipelines operating companies. Empreinte is an in-house developed pre and post processor to ABAQUS Finite Element Calculations dedicated to pipeline integrity assessment. Empreinte was first developed and experimentally validated for dents assessments under static loading conditions. As oil but also gas transmission pipelines are submitted to cyclic loading conditions (internal pressure variations, shutdowns, temperature variations …), it was decided to introduce a fatigue life criterion in Empreinte based on the Dang Van theory assuming that local mesoscopic stresses drive fatigue crack initiation. Full scale tests performed for PRCI projects PR-201-927, PR-201-9324 and MD-4-2 were used to validate the proposed fatigue assessment methodology: - the first full scale fatigue test was performed in 1994 on an X52 pipe. For this test, limited material and test data were available. - the second full scale fatigue test was performed in 2007 on an X52 pipe. For this test, material characterization (in particular tensile tests with full stress strain curves) and test data (strain gages measurements, indenter geometry …) were available. Fatigue life assessments were performed following three main steps: 1. using available data: non linear kinematic hardening constitutive laws were identified for the two pipes materials; 2. finite elements elastic-plastic modeling of the denting processes were carried out; 3. fatigue calculations were performed following a new approach using Dang Van criterion for which the parameters were determined from literature data. The elastic shakedown assumption allowed the determination of the local stress cycle from the macroscopic stress cycle. The fatigue criterion integrating the combined influences of shear and hydrostatic stresses was checked on all points of the pipe. Good agreement between experimental and calculated fatigue lives and fatigue crack initiation points was reached. This opens a promising way to assess pipeline defects fatigue life. Efforts are now focused on the standardization of a testing method to identify the Dang Van criterion of a pipeline material at least in air environment.


Author(s):  
Satoshi Igi ◽  
Teruki Sadasue ◽  
Kenji Oi ◽  
Satoru Yabumoto ◽  
Shunsuke Toyoda

Newly-developed high quality high frequency electric resistance welded (HFW) linepipes have recently been used in pipelines in reel-lay applications and low temperature service environments because of their excellent low temperature weld toughness and cost effectiveness. In order to clarify the safety performance of these HFW linepipes, a series of full-scale tests including a hydrostatic burst test at low temperature, fatigue test and tension test under high internal pressure was conducted, together with small-scale tests such as impact energy and standard fracture toughness tests, which are generally used in mill production and pre-qualification tests. The Charpy transition curve of the developed HFW pipe occurred at a temperature much lower than −45°C. Based on the low-temperature hydrostatic burst test with a notched weld seam at −45°C, the weld of the HFW linepipe presented the same level of leak-before-break (LBB) behavior, as observed in UOE pipes. A full-pipe fatigue test of HFW pipes with repeated internal pressurizing was conducted. The fatigue strength of the developed HFW linepipe shows better performance than butt weld joints because of the smoothness at its weld portion, which is achieved by mechanical grinding of the weld reinforcement. Full-scale pipe tensile tests of girth welded joints were performed with an artificial surface notch at the heat affected zone in the girth weld. The influence of internal pressure was clearly observed in these tests. Based on the above-mentioned full-scale tests, the safety performance of high quality HFW linepipe is discussed in comparison with the mechanical properties in the small-scale tests such as the Charpy and standard fracture toughness tests, especially when the notch was placed in the welded seam.


Author(s):  
Carol Johnston

The offshore environment contains many sources of cyclic loading. Standard design S-N curves, such as those in DNVGL-RP-C203, are usually assigned to ensure a particular design life can be achieved for a particular set of anticipated loading conditions. Girth welds are often the ‘weak link’ in terms of fatigue strength and so it is important to show that girth welds made using new procedures for new projects that are intended to be used in fatigue sensitive risers or flowlines do indeed have the required fatigue performance. Alternatively, designers of new subsea connectors, used for example in tendons for tension leg platforms, mooring applications or well-heads which will experience cyclic loading in service, also wish to verify the fatigue performance of their new designs. Often operators require contractors to carry out resonance fatigue tests on representative girth welds in order to show that girth welds made using new procedures qualify to the required design S-N curve. Operators and contractors must then interpret the results, which is not necessarily straightforward if the fatigue lives are lower than expected. Many factors influence a component’s fatigue strength so there is usually scatter in results obtained when a number of fatigue tests are carried out on real, production standard components. This scatter means that it is important first to carry out the right number of tests in order to obtain a reasonable understanding of the component’s fatigue strength, and then to interpret the fatigue test results properly. A working knowledge of statistics is necessary for both specifying the test programme and interpreting the test results and there is often confusion over various aspects of test specification and interpretation. This paper describes relevant statistical concepts in a way that is accessible to non-experts and that can be used, practically, by designers. The paper illustrates the statistical analysis of test data with examples of the ‘target life’ approach (that is now included in BS7608:2014 + A1) and the equivalent approach in DNVGL-RP-C203, which uses the stress modification factor. It gives practical examples to designers of a pragmatic method that can be used when specifying test programmes and interpreting the results obtained from tests carried out during qualification programmes, which for example, aim to determine whether girth welds made using a new procedure qualify to a particular design curve. It will help designers who are tasked with specifying test programmes to choose a reasonable number of test specimens and stress ranges, and to understand the outcome when results have been obtained.


Author(s):  
Guiyi Wu ◽  
Longjie Wang

Development of remote energy requires large pipeline networks to be placed in more challenging environments such as offshore in deeper waters or on land in Arctic or near-Arctic locations. Pipeline installed and operated in such regions may be subjected to large plastic strains. Engineering critical assessments (ECA) are commonly carried out during design, installation and operation of offshore pipelines to determine acceptable flaw sizes in pipeline girth welds. A number of fracture mechanics-based procedures are available for ECA of pipeline girth welds. Most of these methods are primarily stress-based assessments and are therefore not directly applicable to cases where the displacement-/strain-controlled loading generates large amounts of plastic deformation. For such cases, strain-based fracture assessment for pipeline/girth welds should be carried out instead. However, limited guidance on strain-based assessment is available in the current codes and standards used primarily by the oil and gas industries. This paper reviews the existing strain-based fracture assessment methods, and reports the results of preliminary studies performed to compare the methods reviewed with the available full-scale pipe test data.


Author(s):  
Ming Liu ◽  
Yong-Yi Wang ◽  
David Horsley ◽  
Steve Nanney

This is the third paper in a three-paper series related to the development of tensile strain models. The fundamental basis [1] and formulation [2] of the models are presented in two companion papers. This paper covers the evaluation of the models against large-scale experimental data which include a total of 24 full-scale pipe tests with and without internal pressure [3,4] and 30 curved wide plate (CWP) tests [5,6]. The 24 full-scale pipe specimens are nominally X65 grade (12.75″ OD and 12.7-mm wall thickness) and made by two manufacturers. The actual yield strength of the two pipes differs by approximately 14 ksi. The girth welds are made with three welding procedures, creating three weld strength levels. The full-scale test program are designed to evaluate the effects of internal pressure, weld strength mismatch, pipe strength, pipe Y/T ratio, flaw location, flaw size, and toughness. The 30 CWP specimens are from 36″ OD and 19.1 mm wall thickness X100 pipes. The girth welds are made with two welding procedures, creating two slightly different weld strength mismatch levels. The CWP test specimens expand the range of material grade and wall thickness for the model evaluation. The model evaluation demonstrates that the overall correlations between the experimental test data and model predations are similar when the model predictions are made with Level 2 and 3 procedures and various toughness options. The Level 2 procedure with Charpy energy option and Level 3b provide the best overall one-to-one correlation between the test data and model prediction. The Level 3b shows greater scatter than Level 2 with the Charpy energy option. The most significant contributor to the TSC variations and the difference between the measured and predicted TSCs is the strength variation in the pipes. A small variation in the strength can lead to a large variation of the measured remote strain even when the flaw behavior is essentially the same. For the 24 full-scale pipe tests, a strength variation of 1 ksi in the pipes would explain the large variations of the measured TSC in comparison to the model predictions. The TSC models produce consistent results that capture the overall trend of the test data.


Author(s):  
Steinar Kristoffersen ◽  
Per J. Haagensen ◽  
Gisle Ro̸rvik

H2S is reported to degrade the fatigue properties of C-Mn steels with a factor of 10–20 in life, while clad pipes are reported to have a performance close to or as good as in air. Clad pipes could therefore be used in highly fatigue loaded parts of the riser to facilitate design of steel catenary risers (SCRs) that are connected to floaters in deep waters. A literature survey of high quality girth welds intended for SCR is included in this paper and compared with fatigue test data obtained in this project. The first nine full scale 15" clad pipe girth welds out of a program of 24 specimens are fatigue tested in a high frequency resonance test rig and reported. The pipes were tested as welded, hammer-peened and reeled. The 15" OD steel pipes with 316 cladding tested in this work were surplus pipes from the Norne pipeline project. The fatigue test pipes were fabricated using the same welding procedure and welding facilities at Technip’s spool base in Orkanger, Norway, as the Norne pipeline project. The Norne pipeline is the world’s first reeled clad pipeline. The objective of this work was to test premium quality girth welds with best possible fatigue performance in actual pipes under realistic conditions was. The effect of hammer-peening of the OD was therefore investigated. Post failure examination was performed to determine the type and size of defects at the fatigue crack initiation site.


Author(s):  
Sergio Limon ◽  
Peter Martin ◽  
Mike Barnum ◽  
Robert Pilarczyk

The fracture process of energy pipelines can be described in terms of fracture initiation, stable fracture propagation and final fracture or fracture arrest. Each of these stages, and the final fracture mode (leak or rupture), are directly impacted by the tendency towards brittle or ductile behavior that line pipe steels have the capacity to exhibit. Vintage and modern low carbon steels, such as those used to manufacture energy pipelines, exhibit a temperature-dependent transition from ductile-to-brittle behavior that affects the fracture behavior. There are numerous definitions of fracture toughness in common usage, depending on the stage of the fracture process and the behavior or fracture mode being evaluated. The most commonly used definitions in engineering fracture analysis of pipelines with cracks or long-seam weld defects are related to fracture initiation, stable propagation or final fracture. When choosing fracture toughness test data for use in engineering Fracture Mechanics-based assessments of energy pipelines, it is important to identify the stage of the fracture process and the expected fracture behavior in order to appropriately select test data that represent equivalent conditions. A mismatch between the physical fracture event being modeled and the chosen experimental fracture toughness data can result in unreliable predictions or overly conservative results. This paper presents a description of the physical fracture process, behavior and failure modes that pipelines commonly exhibit as they relate to fracture toughness testing, and their implications when evaluating cracks and cracks-like features in pipelines. Because pipeline operators, and practitioners of engineering Fracture Mechanics analyses, are often faced with the challenge of only having Charpy fracture toughness available, this paper also presents a review of the various correlations of Charpy toughness data to fracture toughness data expressed in terms of KIC or JIC. Considerations with the selection of an appropriate correlation for determining the failure pressure of pipelines in the presence of cracks and long-seam weld anomalies will be discussed.


Author(s):  
Charles Lefevre ◽  
Yiannis Constantinides ◽  
Jang Whan Kim ◽  
Mike Henneke ◽  
Robert Gordon ◽  
...  

Vortex-Induced Motion (VIM), which occurs as a consequence of exposure to strong current such as Loop Current eddies in the Gulf of Mexico, is one of the critical factors in the design of the mooring and riser systems for deepwater offshore structures such as Spars and multi-column Deep Draft Floaters (DDFs). The VIM response can have a significant impact on the fatigue life of mooring and riser components. In particular, Steel Catenary Risers (SCRs) suspended from the floater can be sensitive to VIM-induced fatigue at their mudline touchdown points. Industry currently relies on scaled model testing to determine VIM for design. However, scaled model tests are limited in their ability to represent VIM for the full scale structure since they are generally not able to represent the full scale Reynolds number and also cannot fully represent waves effects, nonlinear mooring system behavior or sheared and unsteady currents. The use of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to simulate VIM can more realistically represent the full scale Reynolds number, waves effects, mooring system, and ocean currents than scaled physical model tests. This paper describes a set of VIM CFD simulations for a Spar hard tank with appurtenances and their comparison against a high quality scaled model test. The test data showed considerable sensitivity to heading angle relative to the incident flow as well as to reduced velocity. The simulated VIM-induced sway motion was compared against the model test data for different reduced velocities (Vm) and Spar headings. Agreement between CFD and model test VIM-induced sway motion was within 9% over the full range of Vm and headings. Use of the Improved Delayed Detached Eddy Simulation (IDDES, Shur et al 2008) turbulence model gives the best agreement with the model test measurements. Guidelines are provided for meshing and time step/solver setting selection.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Kirby Nicholson ◽  
Robert C. Bachman ◽  
R. Yvonne Scherz ◽  
Robert V. Hawkes

Abstract Pressure and stage volume are the least expensive and most readily available data for diagnostic analysis of hydraulic fracturing operations. Case history data from the Midland Basin is used to demonstrate how high-quality, time-synchronized pressure measurements at a treatment and an offsetting shut-in producing well can provide the necessary input to calculate fracture geometries at both wells and estimate perforation cluster efficiency at the treatment well. No special wellbore monitoring equipment is required. In summary, the methods outlined in this paper quantifies fracture geometries as compared to the more general observations of Daneshy (2020) and Haustveit et al. (2020). Pressures collected in Diagnostic Fracture Injection Tests (DFITs), select toe-stage full-scale fracture treatments, and offset observation wells are used to demonstrate a simple workflow. The pressure data combined with Volume to First Response (Vfr) at the observation well is used to create a geometry model of fracture length, width, and height estimates at the treatment well as illustrated in Figure 1. The producing fracture length of the observation well is also determined. Pressure Transient Analysis (PTA) techniques, a Perkins-Kern-Nordgren (PKN) fracture propagation model and offset well Fracture Driven Interaction (FDI) pressures are used to quantify hydraulic fracture dimensions. The PTA-derived Farfield Fracture Extension Pressure, FFEP, concept was introduced in Nicholson et al. (2019) and is summarized in Appendix B of this paper. FFEP replaces Instantaneous Shut-In Pressure, ISIP, for use in net pressure calculations. FFEP is determined and utilized in both DFITs and full-scale fracture inter-stage fall-off data. The use of the Primary Pressure Derivative (PPD) to accurately identify FFEP simplifies and speeds up the analysis, allowing for real time treatment decisions. This new technique is called Rapid-PTA. Additionally, the plotted shape and gradient of the observation-well pressure response can identify whether FDI's are hydraulic or poroelastic before a fracture stage is completed and may be used to change stage volume on the fly. Figure 1Fracture Geometry Model with FDI Pressure Matching Case studies are presented showing the full workflow required to generate the fracture geometry model. The component inputs for the model are presented including a toe-stage DFIT, inter-stage pressure fall-off, and the FDI pressure build-up. We discuss how to optimize these hydraulic fractures in hindsight (look-back) and what might have been done in real time during the completion operations given this workflow and field-ready advanced data-handling capability. Hydraulic fracturing operations can be optimized in real time using new Rapid-PTA techniques for high quality pressure data collected on treating and observation wells. This process opens the door for more advanced geometry modeling and for rapid design changes to save costs and improve well productivity and ultimate recovery.


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