Experimental Study and Prediction of Fatigue Crack Growth in Girth Welded Pipes

Fracture mechanics fatigue crack growth analysis is widely used in the Engineering Critical Assessment of welded structures. An important requirement is an accurate solution for the stress intensity factor, K, for the particular type and geometry of crack under consideration. A case commonly encountered is the weld toe crack. A solution incorporating the stress intensity magnification factor, M_K, to allow for the stress concentration effect of the welded joint, based on 2D FEA has been in use for many years. A new solution from 3D FEA has recently become available. However, in both cases, little has been done to validate the solutions against actual fatigue crack growth data. The results from a recent investigation of fatigue in large diameter (609mm OD × 20mm WT) girth-welded pipes provided an opportunity to do this. This paper presents a comparison of these crack growth data based on beachmarking information with predictions based on the 2D and 3D M_K solutions. It was found that the 2D M_K solution tended to over-estimate the crack growth rate, while the 3D solution provided better correlation between predicted and actual crack propagation behaviour. It is therefore recommended that the 3D M_K solution should be used in the calculation of K for weld toe cracks.