Response of Surface Cracks in Tubular Members During Global Buckling and Instability

Abstract

Beam-columns in compression are subject to potential buckling. If the axial load is combined with a global bending moment, member instability may occur. One situation where this can occur is for pipelines on the seabed, where thermal strains induce significant compression in the pipeline due to constrained expansion. This may lead to upheaval buckling or snaking. In this condition one should also assess how a weld defect in the buckle zone will evolve. If the crack is located on the compressive side of the cross section, the crack remains closed. If the crack is located on the side where beam bending eventually leads to tension, fracture may develop. This has not been studied sufficiently in the past, and is the topic of the present paper. Here the interesting case of initial compression, with closure of the crack, is followed by a transition to tension and opening of the crack when the transverse displacement increases in the post-buckling regime. Simple cases of tubular beam-columns with surface cracks are investigated for cracks growing in a ductile manner. The simulations are based on shell and linespring finite elements.