Analytical study of the strength of adhesive joints of riser pipes

Abstract

Today, adhesive pipe joints are widely used in marine engineering equipment such as platforms and pipe lines, because of the manifest advantages, such as lower stress concentration, uniform stress distribution, lighter weight, water tightness, corrosion-resistance and better fatigue properties. However, adhesive joints in riser pipes are the most vulnerable part where most failures occur, because singular stress fields exist at the extremes of the interface between the adhesive and the adherend. In order to prevent premature failure of the joint systems, a study of adhesive pipe joints under the actual sea environment loadings, including as external pressure, internal pressure, tension, torsion, bending, and combinations of these, should be conducted. In this reported study, stress distributions were analysed in terms of the first-order laminated theory, and it was found that numerical results were in a good agreement with the obtained results obtained from the finite element analysis. In the light of these results, the failure of adhesive joints in deep sea riser pipes was discussed based on stress distributions on the interfaces as defined by theoretical analysis and Finite Element Method. Moreover, the effects of material properties and joint dimensions on the strength of adhesive joints under different load cases were studied.