Speaker
Description
Girth-welded structures, such as tubular trusses, risers, and pipelines, are often subjected to cyclic loading, making fatigue testing essential to ensuring their structural integrity. Welded components in these structures frequently feature welds in close proximity, where minimum spacing requirements are often defined by standards, but adequate technical justification or specific fatigue test geometries are often lacing. This study addresses these limitations by examining how test sample geometry and notches influence fatigue test accuracy and reliability. Utilizing finite element modeling, the study aims to identify optimal specimen geometries for girth welds in close proximity, ensuring the best representation of the welded joint and contributing to the overall safety and reliability of these structures. A comprehensive numerical investigation is conducted using finite element modeling and continuum damage modeling. Geometrical guidelines from standards like EN ISO 5817 are incorporated to shape the weld geometry accurately and to ensure realistic representation of the welded structures. Material parameters, extracted from experimental tests, are applied within the numerical model. By simulating fatigue loads across various girth-welded specimen geometries, the study identifies failure locations and analyzes how different configurations affect fatigue life and crack initiations. These insights inform the development of specimen geometries that most accurately represent real-world fatigue conditions in girth welds. The numerical analysis demonstrates that the geometry of test specimens significantly impacts fatigue test accuracy for girth welds in close proximity. By assessing stress distribution and crack propagation patterns, the study identifies optimized specimen geometries that improve the reliability of fatigue test results. These findings establish best practices for fatigue test specimen design, helping to develop more accurate testing methodologies. The research has significant implications for the structural integrity and safety of girth-welded structures, providing a more accurate approach to fatigue performance evaluation and supporting advancements in fatigue testing.
