Fatigue strength assessment of tubular welded joints by an alternative structural stress approach

The tubular joints, frequently employed in the offshore industry, are submitted to stresses resulting from elementary loadings: tension/compression, in-plane bending and out-of-plane bending. This work concerns the analysis of the recommendations commonly used for the fatigue design of welded joints submitted to combined loadings. Particularly, it deals with the fatigue behaviour of T-joints submitted to deviated-bending: first, a finite element analysis was developed and a post-processing based on the structural stress approach, as proposed by the International Institute of Welding (IIW). Then, fatigue tests were conducted on T-joints submitted to deviated-bending. Comparisons between experimental and numerical results showed that this kind of recommendations is not systematically conservative. Thus, an alternative approach based on structural stresses and taking into account the multi-axial stress state in the weld toe was developed in order to complete the recommendations for the fatigue design of tubular welded joints.

► This study deals with the fatigue behaviour of welded T-joints.
► It concerns the validity of the structural stress approach.
► Fatigue tests and finite element analyses were conducted on T-joints.
► Results showed the structural stress approach is not systematically conservative.
► An alternative approach taking into account the multiaxial stress state is proposed.