Evaluation of stress concentration for planar tubular joints

Abstract

In offshore tubular structures, a typical tubular joint may be subjected to three different types of basic loadings: axial, in-plane bending and out-of-plane bending, through its brace members. Each type will cause a different stress distribution at the joint intersection of structures. Moreover, the actual load condition of a tubular joint can be any combination of the above three basic load cases, for this reason, a combined loading was investigated in addition to these three basic loadings. This load is composed of an axial loading combined with a continuation of rotational bending loading obtained while rotate center of the brace around a circle. Different types of planar joints such as T, Y, X, K, DT, DY, DX, TY, TK, DTX, DTDY, and DTDK, with braces subjected to combined loading, were numerically analyzed to study the effect of those different cases of loading and different types of joints, on the stress concentration zone and values.