A probabilistic damage tolerance concept for welded joints. Part 1: data base and stochastic modelling

The present paper presents the necessary crack growth statistics and suggests stochastic models for a reliability analysis of the fatigue fracture of welded steel plate joints. The reliability levels are derived from extensive testing with fillet-welded joints for which the entire crack growth history has been measured, not only the final fatigue life. The statistics for the time to reach given crack depths are determined. Fracture-mechanics-derived crack growth curves are fitted to the measured experimental curves and the best fit defines the growth parameters involved for each test specimen. The derived statistics and distribution function for these parameters are used as variables in a Monte Carlo simulation (MCS). In addition a Markov model is developed as an alternative stochastic model. It is a Markov chain for which the discrete damage states are related to chosen crack depths in the material. This model works directly with the experimental time statistics. It is a “stochastic bulk approach” not involving any random variables or fracture mechanics modeling. Both models are fitted to the data base and scaled to in-service conditions. Both methods are compared and discussed. The aim is to provide data for the variables used in a MCS and to develop a Markov chain for fast reliability calculation, especially when predicting the most likely influence of numerous future inspections.     

低强匹配焊接接头匹配特性研究

焊接接头的屈服强度匹配方式对接头的设计、制造工艺、裂纹敏感性以及破坏行为有重要影响,焊缝金属、母材、焊接接头强度以及焊接接头强度匹配系数的分布是焊接结构强度、寿命和可靠性计算的基础.文章介绍了对12Ni3CrMoV钢焊接接头屈服强度匹配系数的分布进行的研究,并给出了分析结果.作者认为控制母材和焊缝金属的屈服强度分布的标准差,是降低失配概率的主要途径.     

Review of empirical and semi-empirical Y factor solutions for cracked welded tubular joints

The practical use of fracture mechanics has been established for use on large turbine and electric generator rotor components used in the atomic power generation and the aircraft industry. Application areas in the offshore industry have also been identified. Fracture mechanics is currently used at the design stage of offshore facilities. It provides the basis for fatigue life prediction, steel selection and tolerance setting on allowable weld imperfections. Fracture mechanics is also used during the operational stage of a structure to make important decisions on inspection scheduling and repair strategies and as a tool for establishing limits on operational conditions. Linear elastic fracture mechanics relies on the use of the stress intensity factor concept. The stress intensity factor is a very important fracture mechanics parameter. Therefore, the accuracy of any fracture mechanics model for the prediction of fatigue crack growth in offshore structures for example will depend very much on the accuracy of the stress intensity factor solution used. Several empirical and semi-empirical solutions have been developed over the years with varying degrees of accuracy. This paper presents a review of some of these methods and attempts to assess their accuracy in predicting Y factors for welded tubular joints by comparing predicted results with experimental data obtained from fatigue tests conducted on large scale welded tubular joints. The experimental results were conducted under simulated service conditions, using a jack-up offshore standard load history (JOSH). A comparison between the experimental and predicted results shows that there may be other factors, which influence fatigue crack growth under variable amplitude conditions. Some of these factors have been identified and discussed in this paper.     

Stress concentration factors at welds in pipelines and tanks subjected to internal pressure and axial force

In this paper, analytical expressions for stress concentration factors in pipes subjected to internal pressure and axial force are derived for a number of design cases based on classical shell theory. The effect of fabrication tolerances in simple butt welds is assessed. Analyses based on classical mechanics are compared with results from axisymmetric finite element analyses for verification of the presented methodology. Stress concentration factors are presented for circumferential butt welds in pipes welded together from pipes with different thicknesses, welds at buckling arrestors, welds at flanged connections in pipelines, and welds at ring stiffeners on the inside and the outside of the pipes. It also includes stress concentration factors at end closures in pipes for gas storage. Larger pipes are fabricated from plates with a longitudinal weld. This fabrication process introduces out-of-roundness in the pipes. The actual out-of-roundness is a function of internal pressure. An analytical expression for the bending stress in the pipe wall due to this out-of-roundness is presented. The derived stress concentration factors can be used together with a hot spot stress S–N curve for calculation of fatigue damage.     

潜艇结构锥柱结合壳损伤容限研究

损伤容限与耐久性的结合体现了现代潜艇结构延长寿命、提高可靠性和降低维修成本的综合要求.损伤容限分析的关键问题是正确估算剩余寿命.本文以断裂力学为理论基础,通过对带有初始裂纹的潜艇典型焊接节点模型的剩余寿命有限元分析,将计算结果和试验结果相比较,考核剩余寿命有限元分析方法的可靠性,从而对有初始缺陷或裂纹的疲劳热点区域--潜艇锥柱结合壳进行剩余寿命有限元估算,在此基础上进行潜艇锥柱结合壳损伤容限研究.并对具有不同尺寸的初始裂纹结构的剩余寿命进行有限元分析,确定潜艇在交付使用和检修时的损伤容限尺寸.     

船体结构钢焊接节点振动疲劳强度评价

对船体结构钢（２Ｃ和９０３）焊接节点进行了振动疲劳强度试验研究，建立了一个基于疲劳试验结果得到的σ９９．９与已有规范中疲劳允许力值（σ）之间的关系。这个关系对今后规范中允许应力的制定有参考价值。     

Fatigue crack propagation and computational remaining life assessment of ship structures

The fitness for serviceability of structural members of marine structures in which fatigue cracks might be found during in-service inspection is investigated in order to prevent instantaneous failures of ships, as well as a loss of serviceability such as the oil- and/or watertightness of critical compartments. The essential features of fatigue crack propagation and the remaining life assessment are discussed in the first part of the paper, where the effects of weldment, complicated stress distributions including stress biaxialities at three-dimensional structural joints, structural redundancy, and crack curving are found to be of primary importance. The second part of the paper contains a discussion of an advanced numerical simulation method for the remaining life assessment, in which the above-mentioned effects of fatigue crack propagation are taken into account. The simulated crack paths and the fatigue crack propagation lives are found to be in fairly good agreement with the experimental results.     

Structural behavior and design of high-strength steel welded tubular connections under extreme loading

The present work is motivated by the increasing need for cost-efficient solutions in offshore structural systems for wind energy production and for improvement of their structural performance. The structural behavior and design of high-strength steel welded tubular connections (yield strength higher than 700 MPa) subjected to monotonic and strong cyclic loading is investigated. In the first part of the paper, an experimental investigation is presented on high-strength steel tubular X-joints subjected to monotonic and cyclic loading far beyond the elastic limit of the material, leading to weld fracture. Two grades of weld metal material are employed in the welding process of the specimens. The experimental results indicate that the weld material grade has a significant influence on the deformation capacity of the welded connection under monotonic loading conditions, and its low-cycle fatigue life. The experimental procedure is simulated using advanced finite element models, elucidating several features of joint behavior and complementing the experimental results. Overall, a good agreement is found between numerical simulations and experimental results, in terms of both global response and local strains at the vicinity of the welds. Furthermore, the structural performance of the welded tubular joints under consideration is assessed using available design methodologies in terms of both ultimate strength and low-cycle fatigue resistance, in an attempt to validate an efficient design methodology for low-cycle fatigue. The results from this research effort are aimed at developing the necessary background for the possible use of high-strength steel in tubular steel lattice structures, particularly in offshore platforms for renewable energy production. They can also be used as a basis for the possible amendment of relevant design specifications and recommendations for including special provisions for high-strength steel structural systems.     

基于结构疲劳动态可靠性分析的船舶结构概率损伤容限设计

本文根据结构可靠性理论，提出了一种基于结构疲劳动态可靠性分析的损伤容限分析方法，给出结构疲劳裂纹随机扩展过程中疲劳寿命分布和结构疲劳可靠性的表达式。在给定与疲劳寿命有关的各参数条件下求得动态可靠性曲线，从而在结构设计中根据可靠性要求确定或选择设计参数。     

Fatigue analysis of butt welded AH36 steel joints: Thermographic Method and design S–N curve

The traditional methods of fatigue assessment of welded joints have some limitations, and are extremely time consuming. In order to overcome these difficulties, the Thermographic Method (TM), based on thermographic analyses, has been applied to predict the fatigue behaviour of butt welded joints, made of AH36 steel, largely used in shipbuilding. Experimental tests have been carried out to assess the fatigue capability in terms of S–N curves and fatigue limits. The predictions of the fatigue capability obtained resorting to the Thermographic Method show a good agreement with those derived from the traditional procedure. Moreover, the fatigue design recommendations were compared to the experimental data in order to analyse the reliability of the codes.     

一种新的海洋平台管节点应力评估方法

海洋工程焊接管节点受应力集中及复杂随机载荷的联合作用,容易发生疲劳破坏。为了提高焊接管节点结构疲劳寿命预测的准确性,文章以管壁厚方向上的一点作为疲劳评估点,提出了一种新的管节点结构应力计算方法。通过与国际上公开发表的疲劳试验数据进行比较,证明了文中方法应用于管节点结构的可行性及考虑壁厚方向应力梯度的有效性。基于数值计算,文中还提出了可用于T型管节点应力集中系数计算的参数公式,并对参数公式的精度进行了验证。     

A design method of tensile triangles and low transformation temperature weld metal for reduction of stress concentration and residual stress of welded joints

Stress concentration and residual stress have a significant influence on fatigue life of welded joints. In order to reduce the stress concentration of welded joints, a mathematical design method of tensile triangles (MTT) based on bionics was applied to weld shape design. Accordingly, the stress concentration of various weld beads in the corner boxing welded joint and the fillet welded T-joint was dissected using our in-house FEM software JWRIAN. It was found that there existed a large stress concentration in the conventional welded joints, whereas those welded joints with elongated weld bead were accompanied by a lower stress concentration, especially for elongated weld bead with MTT design. Furthermore, among the weld shapes of the corner boxing fillet welded joint, the rectangle shape of weld bead had the minimum stress concentration factor (1.05). For the fillet welded T-joint with MTT design, the stress concentration of weld toe decreased dramatically with the increase of the index of designed shape, but there was a minor difference of stress concentration at weld root between the weld beads with MTT design. In addition, application of low transformation temperature (LTT) weld metal utilizing martensitic transformation to the fillet welded T-joints can produce compressive residual stress at weld toe.     

海洋平台结构系统疲劳可靠性分析方法

本文研究了海洋平台结构系统疲劳可靠性评估方法。文中对平台结构简生管节点疲劳可靠性分析模型进行了简单的评述，在该模型的基础上，建立了用S－N曲线模型与断裂力学模型分别计算平台完好管节点及有初始裂纹管节点疲劳寿命的平告结构系统疲劳可靠性分析模型。作为一个算例，文中运用作者开发的程序系统，对一固定式导管架平台进行了疲劳可靠性计算。     

Numerical simulations of fatigue crack initiation and propagation based on re-tensile plastic zone generating load criterion for in-plane gusset welded joints

Many accidents are caused by fatigue in welded built-up steel structures, and so it is important to estimate the fatigue lives of such structures quantitatively for safety reasons. By assuming that fatigue cracks cannot grow without an accumulation of alternating tensile/compressional plastic strain, one of the authors identified an improved effective stress intensity factor range ΔK _RPG based on the re-tensile plastic zone generating (RPG) load, which represents the driving force for fatigue cracks, and suggested that ΔK _RPG should be used as the parameter to describe fatigue crack growth behavior. The “FLARP” numerical simulation code in which ΔK _RPG is implemented as the fatigue crack growth parameter, was developed in order to predict fatigue crack initiation and propagation behavior. In this paper, it is demonstrated that FLARP gives accurate estimates for fatigue life by comparing the estimated fatigue crack growth curves and S–N curves with the experimental results for in-plane gusset welded joints, which are used in many welded steel structures. Moreover, the effect of induced bending moment due to the linear misalignment in the out of plane direction on the fatigue strength of in-plane gusset welded joints is investigated through numerical simulations.     

Numerical simulation of fatigue crack propagation under biaxial tensile loadings with phase differences

Fatigue crack propagation under the biaxial tensile loading, which loading directions are normal and parallel to the initial crack position, is highlighted in this study. Most of in-service structures and vessels are subjected to many types of loading. Generally, these loadings have different axial components with different phases. However, the structural integrities of structures and vessels are evaluated according to design codes based on theoretical and experimental investigations under a uniaxial loading condition. Most of these codes are based on the S–N curves approach. An approach that does not use S–N curves has been favored by researchers, with the fracture mechanics approach preferred for evaluating the fatigue life of structures. An advanced fracture mechanics approach was developed based on the Re-tensile Plastic zone Generating (RPG) stress criterion for fatigue crack propagation. In this study, fatigue crack propagation tests under biaxial loading with six different phase and loading conditions are performed and the effect of the phase difference under biaxial loading is evaluated. A numerical simulation method of fatigue crack propagation based on the RPG stress criterion under different biaxial loading phase conditions is presented and compared to measured data.     

考虑检测维修更新的船体梁时变可靠性分析

目前对服役期内船舶时变可靠性的分析,主要考虑疲劳和腐蚀这两类损伤随时间累积对剖面模数的影响,但很少考虑检测维修因素对损伤的修复作用.本文以某疏浚船为例,通过Matlab软件编程,以船体梁总纵强度为分析对象,建立极限状态方程,定量计算疲劳和腐蚀随时间对剖面模数造成的折减,并定量分析了疲劳裂纹和腐蚀板件检测维修的影响,对船舶的时变可靠性进行分析.计算结果表明,疲劳裂纹和腐蚀损伤随时间累积均会引起船体梁时变可靠度降低,且腐蚀是时变可靠度降低的主要因素;对裂纹和腐蚀板件的检测维修能恢复船舶的可靠度,时变可靠度恢复的效果与裂纹检测精度和腐蚀板件最小允许折减量比率有关.建议在后续研究中将对损伤的检测维修因素纳入分析.     

基于切口应力强度理论的横向角接焊接接头的疲劳强度评估

在焊接接头处,由于几何的不连续造成了局部的应力集中,对其疲劳强度评估的研究是十分必要的。文章提出采用奇异强度（as）来计算接头处的几何应力,并基于N-SIF方法分析了不同几何尺寸下十字接头的疲劳强度。结果表明该修正公式可以十分简便地评估出焊接接头处的疲劳强度。     

打磨处理改善焊缝疲劳性能的试验研究

由于高强度钢的使用，船舶结构许用应力水平的提高，船舶结构的疲劳强度越来越受到关注。船舶结构的疲劳寿命取决于其焊接结构的疲劳寿命。因此，了解焊缝几何参数对焊件疲劳强度的影响以及采用经济实用的方法改善船舶结构的疲劳性能是十分重要的。本文首先对焊缝几何参数对焊件疲劳寿命的影响进行了分析，在此基础上用ABS钢和945钢两种钢板做试件，分别进行了简单拉伸实验及打磨和未打磨条件下对接接头的疲劳试验。试验结果表明焊件的疲劳寿命可以通过打磨焊缝得到改善；尤其对于高强度钢焊件。试验还说明手工打磨焊缝和机械磨削焊缝对焊件疲劳强度的改善效果差别很大，疲劳寿命的分散性也很大。因此，应当对改善焊件疲劳寿命的工艺进行更详细的研究。