Development of Fatigue Testing of Full-Scale Girth Welded Pipes Under Variable Amplitude Loading

In service the great majority of structures and components are subjected to stresses of variable amplitude (VA). The fatigue design of welded joints in such structures is based on fatigue data obtained under constant amplitude loading, used in conjunction with a cumulative damage rule to estimate the damage introduced by cycles of varying magnitude in the service stress history. There are two major concerns with fatigue design of deepwater steel catenary risers (SCRs): the validity of cumulative damage rule and the damaging effect of stresses below the constant amplitude fatigue limit (CAFL). It is known that SCRs can experience very high numbers of low stress cycles due to vortex induced vibration (VIV) with the result that the choice of method for accounting for the fatigue damage due to stresses below the constant amplitude fatigue limit can be highly significant in terms of the estimated fatigue life. These two fundamental issues have been addressed in a recent group sponsored project. By successfully establishing a loading spectrum representative of that experienced by risers and developing the testing procedures for VA loading using the resonance testing rigs, the fatigue performance of full-scale girth welded pipes under VA loading were investigated. These loading spectra had the same peak/maximum stress histograms but different minimum stresses. Many tests lasted over 108 cycles to investigate the fatigue damage of small stresses in these spectra. This paper describes the development of the method by which fatigue testing of full-scale girth welded pipes under VA loading had been successfully performed.