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Pipelines & subsea
A million waves
Fatigue and fracture of a girth weld in a free span
- Duration
- 2:34
- Year
- 2026
The case
A weld is not broken by the biggest wave, but by millions of them. Generic case: a 12 in pipeline over a 50 m free span in 20 m of water. Storms take 1.5 % of the time and do 72 % of the fatigue damage. With S-N curves the weld lasts 95 to 97 years; with a 1.5 mm root flaw the crack reaches 3.9 mm in 29 years, and it becomes detectable at year 10.
Topics
- Free spans
- Fatigue
- Fracture mechanics
Basis. Generic synthetic case built for this piece. No client data. Not a design verification.
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