Fatigue and Fracture Degradation Inspection of Offshore Structures and Mechanical Items: The State of the Art

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arvind Keprate ◽  
R. M. Chandima Ratnayake
Keyword(s):  
Fatigue Life ◽  
Crack Growth ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Offshore Structures ◽  
The State ◽  
Probability Of Detection ◽  
Remaining Useful Life ◽  
Life Assessment ◽  
Life Extension ◽  
Fatigue And Fracture

A significant number of offshore structures and mechanical items installed in production systems on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) are either approaching or have exceeded their intended design life. However, with the help of the advancement of technology and analysis approaches, most of the offshore production facilities are being considered for life extension. This requires regular inspection, fitness for service (FFS) assessment, remnant life assessment, maintenance and repair (or modification). In this context, fatigue and fracture related degradation play a vital role. Hence, this paper discusses the state of the art as well as two major methodologies used for fatigue life prediction of structures and mechanical items. The first (S-N approach) is based on experimentally derived S-N curves and linear damage rule (LDR). Since LDR does not take sequence effect of loading into account the S-N approach often leads to overestimation / underestimation of fatigue life. Hence, this paper also takes into simultaneous consideration the second approach, which relies on the principles of fracture mechanics (FM) and crack growth analysis. Furthermore, the paper discusses damage tolerance analysis (DTA) and the role of Risk Based Inspection (RBI) to detect cracks before they grow to a critical level and cause catastrophic failure of the component. Thereafter, the paper discusses the reliability of Non-Destructive Evaluation (NDE) methods quantified in terms of Probability of Detection (PoD), to identify the flaw size and location. Finally, probabilistic crack growth (PCG) models used for remaining useful life estimation (RULE) and for planning inspection regimes of structural and mechanical items are discussed briefly.

Handling Uncertainty in the Remnant Fatigue Life Assessment of Offshore Process Pipework

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arvind Keprate ◽  
R. M. Chandima Ratnayake
Keyword(s):  
Fatigue Life ◽  
Crack Growth ◽  
Life Assessment ◽  
Assessment Process ◽  
Linear Elastic ◽  
Fatigue Life Assessment ◽  
Process Piping ◽  
Growth Laws ◽  
Elastic Fracture ◽  
Offshore Industry

A typical procedure for a remnant fatigue life (RFL) assessment is stated in the BS-7910 standard. The aforementioned standard provides two different methodologies for estimating RFL; these are: the S-N curve approach and the crack growth laws (i.e. using Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics (LEFM) principles) approach. Due to its higher accuracy, the latter approach is more commonly used for RFL assessment in the offshore industry. Nevertheless, accurate prediction of RFL using the deterministic LEFM approach (stated in BS-7910) is a challenging task, as RFL prediction is afflicted with a high number of uncertainties. Furthermore, BS-7910 does not provide any recommendation in regard to handling the uncertainty in the deterministic RFL assessment process. The most common way of dealing with the aforementioned uncertainty is to employ Probabilistic Crack Growth (PCG) models for estimating the RFL. This manuscript explains the procedure for addressing the uncertainty in the RFL assessment of process piping with the help of a numerical example. The numerically obtained RFL estimate is used to demonstrate a calculation of inspection interval.

Collisions and Damage of Offshore Structures: A State-of-the-Art

1985 ◽  
Vol 107 (3) ◽  
pp. 297-314 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. P. Ellinas ◽  
S. Valsgard
Keyword(s):  
State Of The Art ◽  
Offshore Structures ◽  
The State ◽  
Design Parameters ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Research Activity ◽  
Comprehensive Information ◽  
Major Interest ◽  
Offshore Industry ◽  
Available Information

Over the recent years, following the very rapid increase in the construction and installation of offshore structures, there has been a considerable growth of interest in the assessment of the probabilities and consequences of collision and damage of such structures. This is reflected by the very large number of papers published over the last 15 yr and the multitude of conferences and meetings held on the subject. Many research programs have been completed or are in progress at many centers and institutions over the world. Accidental loading and damage are now accepted design parameters recommended for consideration in a number of Codes for the design in offshore structures. This paper reviews the state-of-the-art with respect to the probabilities and consequences of collisions and accidental loading in general, and methods for the assessment of the design of steel offshore structures against damage. Most of the available information in the field of offshore collisions and accidental loading emanates from research and experience related to ship safety. However, in this paper emphasis is placed on research activity and available information concerned with offshore structures, such as platforms, semisubmersibles, etc. There is a considerable amount of information available on methods for evaluating the extent and effects on damage of these structures and in estimating their residual strength in the damaged condition. As this is an area currently of major interest in the offshore industry, the paper presents comprehensive information and some new results relating to all major structural components. The state-of-the-art with regards to methods and principles for design against damage is also reviewed and commented upon. The paper concludes with general recommendations and indications of areas where future research could be most usefully directed.

Benefit of Measurements and Structural Reliability Analysis for Wellhead Fatigue

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Torfinn Hørte ◽  
Massimiliano Russo ◽  
Michael Macke ◽  
Lorents Reinås
Keyword(s):  
Fatigue Life ◽  
Reliability Analysis ◽  
Failure Probability ◽  
Structural Reliability ◽  
Offshore Structures ◽  
Life Extension ◽  
Worst Case ◽  
Deterministic Analysis ◽  
Input Parameters ◽  
Measured Response

Structural Reliability Analysis (SRA) methods have been applied to marine and offshore structures for decades. SRA has proven useful in life extension exercises and inspection planning of existing offshore structures. It is also a useful tool in code development, where the reliability level provided by the code is calculated by SRA and calibrated to a target failure probability. The current analysis methods for wellhead fatigue are associated with high sensitivity to variations in some input parameters. Some of these input parameters are difficult to assess, and sensitivity screening is often needed and the worst case is then typically used as a basis for the analysis. The degree of conservatism becomes difficult to quantify, and it is therefore equally difficult to find justification to avoid worst case assumptions. By applying SRA to the problem of wellhead fatigue, the input parameters are accounted for with their associated uncertainty given by probability distributions. In performing SRA all uncertainties are considered simultaneously, and the probability of fatigue failure is estimated and the conservatism is thereby quantified. In addition SRA also provides so-called uncertainty importance factors. These represent a relative quantification of which input parameter uncertainties contribute the most to the overall failure probability, and may serve well as guidance on where possible effort to reduce the uncertainty preferably should be made. For instance, instrumentation may be used to measure the actual structural response and thus eliminate the uncertainty that is associated with response calculations. Clearly measurements obtained from an instrumented system will have its own uncertainty. Other options could be to perform specific fatigue capacity testing or pay increased attention to logging of critical operational parameters such as the cement level in the annulus between the conductor and surface casing. This article deals with the use of measurements for fatigue life estimation. Continuous measurements of the BOP motion during the drilling operations have been obtained for a subsea well in the North Sea. These measurements are used both in conventional (deterministic) analysis and in SRA (probabilistic analysis) for fatigue in the wellhead system. From the deterministic analysis improved fatigue life results are obtained if the measured response replaces the response obtained by analysis. Furthermore, SRA is used to evaluate the appropriate magnitude of the design fatigue factor when fatigue analysis is based on measured response. It is believed that the benefit from measurements and SRA serve as an improved input to the decision making process in the event of life extension of existing subsea wells.

Improved Fatigue Life Assessment of Lighting Poles

2014 ◽  
Vol 891-892 ◽  
pp. 149-154
Author(s):  
Clark W.K. Hyland ◽  
W. George Ferguson ◽  
Katalin Csikasz
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Fatigue Life ◽  
Crack Growth ◽  
Design Method ◽  
Fatigue Cracking ◽  
Life Assessment ◽  
Response Analysis ◽  
Wind Speeds ◽  
Proof Testing ◽  
Wind Response

Fatigue cracking reported in a lighting pole on an elevated bridge structure near Wellington raised the question of how to better design for and predict the fatigue life of lighting poles subject to wind induced fatigue. There have been concerns as to the reliability and currency of the methods commonly used in New Zealand. The paper therefore reviews current international design methods and describes the development of an improved fatigue design method for lighting poles in New Zealand. The new method uses fracture mechanics based crack growth formulations in conjunction with a modified J.D. Holmes Method for wind response analysis of the pole to varying wind speeds. Cumulative crack growth is calculated iteratively rather than using an S-N curve based Palmegran-Miner summation. Wind spectra used in the method are developed from long term meteorological records at representative locations. Software has been prepared to enable quick assessment of the expected fatigue life of lighting poles, and associated gear openings and holding down bolts The method and software has been calibrated with reference to full scale laboratory fatigue proof testing of representative base stubs and natural wind response testing of a 12 m high lighting pole.

scholarly journals Life extension of self-healing polymers with rapidly growing fatigue cracks

2006 ◽  
Vol 4 (13) ◽  
pp. 395-403 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.S Jones ◽  
J.D Rule ◽  
J.S Moore ◽  
N.R Sottos ◽  
S.R White
Keyword(s):  
Fatigue Life ◽  
Crack Growth ◽  
Fatigue Cracks ◽  
Relative Magnitude ◽  
Life Extension ◽  
Self Healing ◽  
Grubbs Catalyst ◽  
Fourfold Increase ◽  
Endurance Limits ◽  
Kinetics Of

Self-healing polymers, based on microencapsulated dicyclopentadiene and Grubbs' catalyst embedded in the polymer matrix, are capable of responding to propagating fatigue cracks by autonomic processes that lead to higher endurance limits and life extension, or even the complete arrest of the crack growth. The amount of fatigue-life extension depends on the relative magnitude of the mechanical kinetics of crack propagation and the chemical kinetics of healing. As the healing kinetics are accelerated, greater fatigue life extension is achieved. The use of wax-protected, recrystallized Grubbs' catalyst leads to a fourfold increase in the rate of polymerization of bulk dicyclopentadiene and extends the fatigue life of a polymer specimen over 30 times longer than a comparable non-healing specimen. The fatigue life of polymers under extremely fast fatigue crack growth can be extended through the incorporation of periodic rest periods, effectively training the self-healing polymeric material to achieve higher endurance limits.

Fatigue Life Extension of Offshore Structures by Ultrasonic Peening

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luis Lopez Martinez
Keyword(s):  
Fatigue Life ◽  
Service Life ◽  
Fatigue Resistance ◽  
Structural Integrity ◽  
High Stress ◽  
Offshore Structures ◽  
Life Extension ◽  
Original Design ◽  
Ultrasonic Peening ◽  
Offshore Installations

The service life of offshore installations is limited by its structural integrity. Furthermore the structural integrity is mainly governed by the fatigue resistance of critical welded details. In a FPSO installation these details are among others pallet stools weld joints to deck structure and bulkheads/web frames weld connections to longitudinal in ballast tanks. ultrasonic peening can improve the fatigue resistance of welded joints. Fatigue test results shows an increase of four times for high stress ranges and up to ten times for high cycle fatigue. For specimens which have already consumed half of their fatigue life the treatment resets the clock to zero, as a minimum value. Consequently ultrasonic peening treatment was applied to several offshore installations on fatigue sensitive weld connections with the objective to extend the service life of the these. Finite Element Analysis carried out by classification societies for these offshore structures demonstrated critical fatigue lives for several weld connections. These weld connections were then treated by ultrasonic peening with the objective to extend their fatigue lives and by doing that reach the targeted service life for the installation. The successful application of the ultrasonic peening treatment was a pioneering work which involved several partners. A pilot project on a FPSO started in 2005 and the treated critical weld connections are still intact and show not sign of crack initiation despite the fact the calculations then showed shorter fatigue lives than the life span already consumed. As a result the same ultrasonic peening procedure has been proposed to be applied for other fatigue sensitive locations on the installation. Offshore installations around the world are reaching their original design life. Most of the operators chose to extend the service life of their assets rather than scrape them and build new. The reasons for that are: improved oil recovering techniques, time required to get a new build installation on site, environment concerns, wiser management of energy and resources among others. Therefore the Life Extension of Offshore Installations is a subject of current interest for the upstream industry.

Fatigue Life Assessment for Variable Strain in a Mixing Tee by Use of Effective Strain Range

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Koji Miyoshi ◽  
Masayuki Kamaya
Keyword(s):  
Fatigue Life ◽  
Crack Growth ◽  
Fatigue Damage ◽  
Hot Spot ◽  
Effective Strain ◽  
Strain Range ◽  
Life Assessment ◽  
Miner’S Rule ◽  
Loading Sequence ◽  
Miner's Rule

Abstract Mixing flow causes fluctuations in fluid temperature near a pipe wall and may result in fatigue crack initiation. Movement of the hot spot, at which the pipe inner surface was heated by hot flow from the branch pipe, causes thermal stress fluctuations. In this study, the effect of the loading sequence on thermal fatigue in a mixing tee was investigated. In addition, the prediction method of the fatigue life for the variable thermal strain in the mixing tee was discussed. The time histories of the strain around the hot spot were estimated by finite element analysis for which the temperature condition was determined by wall temperature measured in a mock-up test. The accumulated fatigue damage around the hot spot obtained by Miner's rule was less than 1.0. Since the strain around the hot spot had waveforms with periodic overload, the loading sequence with periodic overload caused reduction of the fatigue life around the hot spot. Crack growth tests showed that a single overload decreased crack opening strain and increased the effective strain range. The increment of the effective strain range accelerated the crack growth rate after the overload. The accumulated fatigue damage for the strain in the mixing tee was calculated using Miner's rule and the strain ranges which added the maximum increment of the effective strain range. The accumulated fatigue damage was larger than 1.0 under most conditions. The proposed procedure is suitable to predict the conservative fatigue life in a mixing tee.

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