Re-evaluation of fatigue curves for flush ground girth welds
The fatigue performance of girth welded steel pipes with the weld cap and root flush-ground is designated as Class C in the BS 7608 fatigue design rules. However, this is not based directly on experimental data. Since fatigue test results for flush-ground girth welds in steel pipes have now become available, a compre-hensive examination of published work was carried out to re-evaluate this and other design S-N curves for such welds on the basis of the relevant experimental data. The data considered included some from tests on full-scale welded pipes and other from strip specimens cut from girth-welded pipes. In addition, the opportunity was taken to consider the larger database available from butt-welded plate specimens for comparison.An important condition on the use of relatively high design curves for flush-ground butt welds is that the weld should be proved free from significant welding defects. Concern about the detectability of small defects that could result in fatigue performance below such design curves has limited their acceptance. In the case ofvolumetric flaws, relevant fatigue data obtained from girth welds containing reportable embedded flaws are available and they were used, together with data obtained from butt-welded plate specimens, to address such concerns.
Y.H.Zhang S.J.Maddox A.Stacey
TWI, Cambridge, United Kingdom HSE, London, United Kingdom
国际会议
第12届钢管结构国际学术会议(The 12th International Symposium on Tubular Structures)
上海
英文
341-347
2008-10-08（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）