A review of stress concentration factors in tubular and non-tubular joints for design of offshore installations

Tubular structures are widely used in offshore installations, trusses, high rise buildings, towers for wind turbines, ski-lift installations, lightning, road pole signals etc., owing to their excellent structural performance and attractive appearance. Stress concentration, especially in the welded joints of these structures, is an important design consideration particularly for fatigue design. In the context of tubular and non-tubular joints, this paper provides a review of the experimental and numerical studies that have been carried out so far to determine the stress concentration factor (SCF). Emphasis is also placed on the complexity of capturing different types of stresses in tubular/non-tubular joints for estimation of SCF. Present code provisions for evaluation of SCF are also discussed. Further, a few issues, which require significant research effort to advance our understanding and to improve the current design guidelines, have been identified.