J. Marine Sci. Appl.

(2011) 10: 321-324

DOI: 10.1007/s11804-011-1075-0

Finite Element Simplified Fatigue Analysis Method for

a Non-tubular Joint of an Offshore Jacket Platform
Qinghua Bao* and Heng Feng
China National Petroleum Offshore Engineering Co. Ltd., Beijing 100176, China

Abstract: This paper proposes the finite element simplified fatigue analysis method for fatigue evaluation of
the composite non-tubular joint structure of an offshore jacket subjected to wave loads. The skirt pile sleeve of
the offshore jacket, which had been in service, was taken as an example of the non-tubular joint structure.
SACS software was used for global analysis of multi-directional wave loads for the jacket platform, and
ALGOR software was used to build a finite element model, perform finite element analysis, post-process stress
results for acquiring the stress range, and perform fatigue evaluation. The analysis results indicate that the
extreme stress range is within the allowable stress range and meets the requirements of DNV code. That means
the simplified fatigue analysis method is effective and can be used in fatigue design for the non-tubular joint
structure of an offshore jacket.
Keywords: offshore jacket platform; skirt pile sleeve; finite element; fatigue evaluation
Article ID: 1671-9433(2011)03-0321-04

1 Introduction1 2 Analysis procedure

An offshore jacket platform subjected to large numbers of The finite element simplified fatigue analysis method
cyclic oscillating loads caused by waves may have fatigue includes the following analysis procedures. First, the SACS
damage even at very low nominal stress levels (DNV, 2004). model of a jacket platform shown in Fig.1 is built to carry
For typical tubular joints of the jacket platform such as T, Y, out global analysis for obtaining a critical fatigue load case
K, TK, double T, and X, relevant fatigue check codes and deflection boundary condition. Then ALGOR finite
provide stress concentrated factor (SCF) calculation element analysis software is used to build the finite element
formulas and fatigue evaluation methods of these typical model of the corresponding jacket skirt pile sleeve as shown
tubular joints (Zhang et al., 2004). But for complicated in Fig.2. Loading is applied to perform finite element
non-tubular joints, the SCF formulas of codes are not analysis. Finally through manually post-processing the stress
suitable (Tan et al., 2005), and the fatigue program of SACS output of ALGOR analysis for recording the stress range,
software which is normally used to evaluate the the fatigue property of the jacket skirt pile sleeve can be
performance of the typical tubular joints of the jacket evaluated according to the DNV code.
platform with respect to fatigue failure cannot be applied. In
this paper, a method of finite element simplified fatigue
analysis is proposed to calculate stress. After that, hot stress
can be obtained, and finally fatigue property can be
evaluated. In order to introduce this simplified fatigue
analysis method in detail, the fatigue property of the
offshore jacket skirt pile sleeve, which consists of the pile
sleeve, grout connection, top Yoke plate, bottom Yoke plate,
shear plate and brace, is evaluated. Those structure
components on an offshore jacket are the most complicated
parts of a non-tubular joint structure of an offshore jacket
platforms infrastructure. The analysis method and
evaluation results of the jacket skirt pile sleeve approved by
DNV indicate that the simplified fatigue analysis method is
very effective and can be taken as a reference in a fatigue
design for the non-tubular joint structure of an offshore
jacket.
Fig.1 Jacket SACS global analysis model
Received date: 2010-09-13.
*Corresponding author Email: baoqh.cpoe@cnpc.com.cn
Harbin Engineering University and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011
322 Qinghua Bao, et al. Finite Element Simplified Fatigue Analysis Method for a Non-tubular Joint of an Offshore Jacket Platform

3 Fatigue strength analysis

3.1 Loading
The corresponding part of global jacket fatigue analysis
model is shown in Fig.3. In order to attain a critical fatigue
load case, the SACS global analysis including
multi-directional wave loads is performed (API, 2007), and
Morison formula is used to calculate wave load including
drag and inertia loads. The wave fatigue load case pair
extracted from the SACS global analysis is used for
evaluating the approximate stress range and is listed in Table
2. The load case corresponds to the wave of the 100 year
return period in accordance with API code. The wave phases
Fig.2 Finite element model of the jacket skirt pile sleeve which produce maximum/minimum base shear are the same
as those that produce the maximum/minimum overturning
2.1 Modeling moment. So, only the maximum/minimum base shear load
The major structural details of the jacket skirt pile sleeve case pair is used in the fatigue analysis (API, 2007).
incorporated in the model include the jacket bracing, jacket
leg, yoke plate, shear plate, and grouted pile sleeves as
shown in Fig.2. The weld bead stiffeners are not included in
the model. The model adopted a 4-noded structural shell
element with six degrees of freedom at each node. The shell
element is ideally suited to represent curved shells and a flat
plate of variable thickness, and effectively model
through-thickness properties. Mesh size at connection is
close to component thickness in modeling, and verified with
significantly less difference of stress at these connections
through mesh dividing for some times.

The pile sleeve grouted connection is modeled as an

8-noded structural solid element with three degrees of (a) Plane defined by 205 201 207
freedom at each node. The outside and inside pile sleeves
are modeled by a 4-noded structural shell element. All nodes
along boundaries between grout elements and shell elements
are coupled ones. This means that the deflection of the
boundary nodes is simultaneously satisfied with the shell
and grout boundary deflection conditions.

The element nodes at the ends of each of the jacket braces,

legs, and piles are rigidly constrained to a single node, and
located on the central line of the tubular pipes. Load or
boundary conditions are applied to these central nodes (Liu
et al., 2002).
(b) Plane defined by 101 103 125
2.2 Material properties
The skirt pile sleeve assembly and the pile sleeve connection
will be respectively constructed with high strength steel and
grout. The relevant material properties are shown in Table 1.

Table 1 Material property

Item Steel Grout
Youngs modulus/Pa 2.11011 2.41010
Poissons ratio 0.3 0.167
Density/(kg/m3) 7.85103 3.45103
Yielding strength/MPa 345
(c) Plane defined by 105 101 205
Journal of Marine Science and Application (2011) 10: 321-324 323

Table 2 Loadcase definition

SACS Loadcase Description

The wave position producing the
Maxbaseshear-Max
maximum base shear
The wave position producing the
Minbaseshear-Min
minimum base shear

Deflections and rotations of every jacket joint are outputted

(d) Plane defined by 107 103 207
Fig.3 Joint numbers of SACS global analysis
by SACS global analysis as shown in Table 3 and Table 4.
The joint numbers in the table refer to the SACS model
shown in Fig.1, and a brief description of the members
framing into the point in question is shown in Fig.3. All
these joint deflections and rotations are considered as the
boundary conditions and applied to the corresponding joints
during the local fatigue strength analysis.

Table 3 Joint deflections and rotations under loadcase Max from SACS output
Joint Deflection(X) Deflection(Y)/ Deflection(Z)/ Rotation (X)/ Rotation (Y)/ Rotation (Z)/
Load case
number cm cm cm rad rad rad
37 MAX 2.863 166 8 2.776 659 3 1.930 273 7 0.000 707 2 0.000 748 6 0.000 047 2
124 MAX 3.666 150 3 2.847 753 5 1.402 404 8 0.000 089 9 0.000 589 9 0.000 946 6
125 MAX 2.923 683 9 3.682 750 5 1.406 427 5 0.000 618 8 0.000 119 4 0.000 981 7
203 MAX 3.707 204 6 3.775 317 2 0.942 111 7 0.000 208 1 0.000 641 4 0.001 847 7

Table 4 Joint deflections and rotations under loadcase Min from SACS output
Joint Deflection(X)/ Deflection(Y)/ Deflection(Z)/ Rotation (X)/ Rotation (Y)/ Rotation (Z)/
Load case
number cm cm cm rad rad rad
37 MIN 1.545 483 1 1.563 599 5 0.418 820 6 0.000 534 2 0.000 527 8 0.000 095 3
124 MIN 2.068 869 1 1.746 377 1 0.768 034 6 0.000 233 1 0.000 500 6 0.000 644 5
125 MIN 1.679 374 3 2.167 774 4 0.765 119 4 0.000 524 1 0.000 231 4 0.000 568 7
203 MIN 2.065 717 7 2.129 249 6 0.903 987 9 0.000 415 4 0.000 026 9 0.001 173 8

3.2 Fatigue evaluation method

According to DNV standard, the finite element simplified Table 5 Extreme stress ranges
fatigue analysis method described above is used in fatigue Joint Extreme stress
Description
assessment. The long-term stress range distribution is a classification range/ MPa
fundamental requirement for fatigue analysis which is based T Tubular joint 231
on fatigue tests (S-N curves) (DNV, 2008). In lieu of Tube to shear
F 182
calculating the long-term distribution directly, a form of plate/yoke plate
Weibull distribution is used to represent the long-term
distribution. When the Weibull distributed stress range and The stress derived above corresponds to the reference
bilinear S-N curves are used, the fatigue damage expression thickness. When the thickness is larger than the reference
is given by (DNV, 2008): thickness, an allowable extreme stress range may be
obtained as (DNV, 2008).
qm1 m S h qm2 m S h
D = 0Td 1 + 1 ; 1 + 1 + 2 ; 1 (1) tref
k

a1 h q a2 h q
Based on the assumption of the allowable fatigue damage
= 1.0 , 52 years fatigue design life including 2 times of 25 3.3 Stress range evaluation
years service life and 2 years transportation fatigue life (API,
2007), with an average wave period of 9.312 sec and
h = 1.1 , the largest stress ranges of different joint
classifications are shown in Table 5.
0,t = 0,tref (2)
t
The six stress components at each load case with reference
to element local coordinates are outputted from the finite
element analysis results. For each stress component, the
algebraic differences between the stresses are calculated as
follows (Shu, 1998).
324 Qinghua Bao, et al. Finite Element Simplified Fatigue Analysis Method for a Non-tubular Joint of an Offshore Jacket Platform

x = ( xx1 + xb1 ) ( xx 2 + xb 2 ) used to effectively evaluate the fatigue properties of the

y = ( yy1 + yb1 ) ( yy 2 + yb 2 ) (3) composite non-tubular joint structure of an offshore jacket.
Fatigue design of the skirt pile sleeve, which is the most
xy = ( xy1 + xyb1 ) ( xy 2 + xyb 2 )
complicated non-tubular joint on the jacket, was taken as an
example to introduce and verify the method in detail. The
The principal stresses listed as follows are calculated method was used successfully in fatigue design of a skirt
from the above resulting stress differences. Stress range is pile sleeve which had been designed and subsequently
numerically the greatest of these principal stresses (Shu, fabricated and installed in the sea. In addition, the analysis
1998). results have been approved by DNV. Consequently, this
analysis method is significant to the fatigue design for the
x + y x y non-tubular joint structure of other offshore jackets.
= ( ) 2 + xy 2 (4)
2 2
References
3.4 Fatigue analysis results
The extreme stress range of the jacket skirt pile sleeve under API (2007). Recommended Practice 2A-WSD. RP 2A, America
the pair of load cases is evaluated as described in Sec. 0 and Petroleum Institute.
DNV (2004). Structural design of offshore ships. OS-C102, Det
summarized in Table 6.
Norsk Veritas.
Table 6 Extreme stress range summary of load case pair DNV (2008). Fatigue strength analysis of offshore steel structures.
RP-C203, Det Norsk Veritas.
Extreme Allowable Liu Gang, Zheng Yunlong, Zhao Deyou (2002). Fatigue strength
Item Thickness/
stress range/ extreme stress analysis of BINGO9000 semisubmersible drilling rig. Joural of
mm
MPa range/MPa Ship Mechanics, 6(2), 54-62.
Top yoke plate 32 79.87 171.11 Shu Yilin (1998). Mechanics of materials. Higher Education Press,
Bottom yoke Beijing.
32 16.26 171.11 Tan Kairen, Xiao xi, Huang Xiaoping (2005). Analysis and
plate
calculation of fatigue life of unconventional tubular joints.
Shear PL-32 32 29.21 171.11 Ocean Engineering, 23(3), 51-54.
Shear PL-38 38 40.60 163.91 ZhangYuling, Pan Jiyan Pan Jinuan (2004). Analysis of common
Pile sleeve fatigue details in steel truss structures. Tsinghua Science and
32 11.41 231.00 Technology, 9(5), 583-588.
(231432)
Pile sleeve
38 13.37 221.29 Qinghua Bao is an engineer at China National
(232638) Petroleum Offshore Engineering Co. Ltd. His
Jacket leg current research interests are focused on marine
32 26.17 231.00 engineering.
(182932)
Jacket leg
60 41.81 197.41
(182960)

Obviously, the extreme stress ranges are all less than the
allowable extreme stress ranges. Therefore, the jacket skirt Heng Feng is an engineer at China National
pile sleeve is acceptable to the fatigue strength evaluation. Petroleum Offshore Engineering Co. Ltd. His
current research interests are focused on marine
engineering.
4 Conclusions
Fatigue design for a complicated non-tubular joint of an
offshore jacket is very difficult. This paper proposed that the
finite element simplified fatigue analysis method can be