In the present paper, we propose an analytical method to calculate the Stress Intensity Factor (SIF) of circumferential surface cracks in steel pipes subjected to bending. In light of pipe geometry and bending load case, the analytical formula is raised by introducing new bending correction factors and new geometry correction factors on the basis of the Newman-Raju’s method. The bending correction factors are deduced based on the bending stress gradient, while the geometry correction factors are determined by parametric studies for internal surface cracks and external surface cracks respectively. Owing to a large data set requirement by the parametric studies, three-dimensional finite element (FE) models of evaluating SIFs of circumferential surface cracks are developed. The FE method is validated to ensure that it could provide accurate SIF estimations. Analytical verification is conducted which shows that the SIF evaluated by the proposed analytical method match well with the results evaluated by the recommended analytical method. Then experimental investigations of external surface crack growth in offshore steel pipe subjected to fatigue bending are implemented to further validate the analytical method of predicting surface crack growth rate. The analytical results match well with the test results and the available experimental data from literature, indicating that the analytical method can be used for practical purposes and facilitate the crack growth evaluation and residual fatigue life prediction of cracked steel pipes. Previous article in issue@en

Surface cracked steel plates reinforced with single-side Fiber-Reinforced Polymer (FRP) subjected to cyclic tension are experimental studied. The main purpose is to analyze the effect of FRP reinforcement on the crack growth. The failure modes and their effects are analyzed as well. Given the single-side reinforcement, reinforcing the cracked surface significantly prolonged the fatigue life, while reinforcing the reversed side resulted in the opposite consequence. Most specimens did not encounter debonding failures, indicating such failures are avoidable by improving the reinforcement quality. The results also indicate the bond layer number is an insensitive factor–an optimum number is existed.

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In this paper, we experimentally studied the external surface crack growth in steel pipes reinforced with Composite System Repaired (CRS). CRS reinforced surface cracked API 5L X65 pipes were tested, containing three initial notch sizes and four reinforcement schemes. During the tests, the crack growth results, as well as the strain on the external mid-bottom composite laminate around the cracked area, and the vertical deflection of the specimens were recorded. The results showed that within the surface crack growth stage, the composite laminates were adequately bonded on the steel substrate, which significantly decreased the crack growth rate and prolonged the residual fatigue life. In addition, CRS reinforcement has increased the stiffness of the surface cracked pipes. Through the analysis on applying different reinforcement schemes, we indicated that increasing the amount of composite layers evidently facilitated the reinforcement effectiveness, while increasing the bond length did not; and the inversely diagonal wrapping pattern performance less effective.

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In this paper, we analyse the surface crack growth in the Fibre-Reinforced Polymer (FRP) reinforced steel plates subjected to tension by means of the finite element (FE) method. Following the experimental study, a three-dimensional FE model is developed to evaluate the Stress Intensity Factor (SIF) of the surface crack, and the crack growth rate is calculated by using the Paris’ law. Then the FE model is validated by the experimental results. Afterwards, on account of the validated FE model, a parametric study is developed in order to guide the optimization design of FRP reinforcement accounting for different reinforcing schemes and multiple influential parameters. The results indicate that the single-side FRP reinforcement on the cracked surface is the most efficient method, owing to the generated out-of-plane bending moment. In addition, the optimum bond length and number of layers are indicated. Besides, surface crack growth is sensitive to the influential parameters including aspect ratio of the surface crack and crack dimension, while less sensitive to the Carbon-FRP (CFRP) tensile modulus, and the adhesive thickness. The analysis is of instructive value to facilitate the application of FRP reinforcement on the surface cracked metallic structure repairing domain.

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The ultimate strength of metallic pipelines will be inevitably affected when they have suffered from structural damage after mechanical interference. The present experiments aim to investigate the residual ultimate bending strength of metallic pipes with structural damage based on large-scale pipe tests. Artificial damage, such as a dent, metal loss, a crack, and combinations thereof, is introduced to the pipe surface in advance. Four-point bending tests are performed to investigate the structural behavior of metallic pipes in terms of bending moment-curvature diagrams, failure modes, bending capacity, and critical bending curvatures. Test results show that the occurrence of structural damage on the pipe compression side reduces the bending capacity significantly. Only a slight effect has been observed for pipes with damage on the tensile side as long as no fracture failure appears. The possible causes that have introduced experimental errors are presented and discussed. The test data obtained in this paper can be used to further quantify damage effects on bending capacity of seamless pipes with similar D/t ratios. The comparison results in this paper can facilitate the structural integrity design as well as the maintenance of damaged pipes when mechanical interference happens during the service life of pipelines.

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The ultimate strength of metallic pipelines will be inevitably affected when they have suffered from structural damage. The present experiments aim to investigate the residual ultimate bending strength of metallic pipes with structural damage based on large-scale pipe specimens. Artificial damage such as dent, metal loss, crack and combinations thereof is introduced on the pipe surface in advance. The entire test project consists of 34 seamless pipes with a relative low Diameter-to-thickness (D=t) ratio around 21.3, among which four intact specimens and thirty damaged specimens have been carried out for mutual comparison. Extensive measurements on structural damage and pipe geometries including wall thickness and outer diameter are performed. The material properties are measured by tensile tests with specimens from both pipe longitudinal and hoop direction. The four-point bending tests are performed to investigate the structural behaviors of metallic pipes. The bending strength associating with failure mode of each specimen is documented extensively, and the bending moment-curvature curves are presented and discussed. The fundamental research of experiments on damaged pipes in the present paper will be deployed for the following numerical and analytical research in the near future.

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