Fatigue Behaviour of Dented Pipes Under Internal Pressure: A Numerical-Experimental Approach

This work presents a numerical-experimental methodology to study the fatigue behavior of dented pipes under internal pressure. A full-scale experimental program on dented pipes containing gouges were achieved. Two types of defects were studied: metal loss (plain dent) and sharp notch. Both defects acting independently reduce the fatigue life performance but their combination is highly detrimental and must be avoided. We did not find a severity threshold (e.g. dent depth or crack depth) where these defects could coexist. In addition, based on numerical analyses we proposed a new expression for stress concentration factor (SCF) in line with transversal indentation. This information was successfully integrated into a simple fatigue model where the fatigue life predictions were practically inside the window of experimental results.