Fatigue Strength Assessment of Single-Sided Girth Welds in Offshore Pipelines Subjected to Start-Up and Shut-Down Cycles

Abstract

During the service life of offshore pipelines, many start-up and shut-down cycles take place, possibly leading to significant cyclic loads. Fatigue failure may occur, resulting in serious environmental pollution and loss of property. The study aims to assess the fatigue strength of single-sided girth welds in offshore pipelines under these specific fatigue loads. The longitudinal stress range caused by the variation of the pipeline’s internal pressure and temperature is calculated. The effective notch strain approach is used to assess the fatigue strength of welds. The plastic behaviour of the weld root is investigated for a study case to justify the use of low-cycle fatigue assessment approaches. The effect of weld root geometry on the notch stress factor is studied to identify the dominant geometrical parameters. The fatigue strength of the study case is assessed, and some limitations of the assessment are discussed. The results show that the plastic behaviour of the weld root is only significant for severe local stress concentrations, which is mainly governed by the axial misalignment, weld root angle and the weld root bead width. If the fatigue damage at failure is 0.1, a limited number of start-up and shut-down cycles are allowed during the service life of the pipeline for the study case, indicating the necessity of fatigue strength assessment.