Effect of geometric parameters and combined loading on stress distribution of tubular T-joints

Abstract

Steel tubular structures are widely used in the construction of offshore platforms and T-type junctions are extensively used in this domain. The tubular members are welded, which generates significant stress concentrations at the edges. The stress levels reached in these critical places are used to assess lifetimes based on fatigue curves from tests conducted on standard samples. This study is devoted to the modeling and analysis of T-type welded tubular structures for the determination of hot spots stresses (HSS) at the chord/brace intersection, A numerical analysis was carried out to study the effect of a combined loading composed of an axial loading and a continuation of rational bending, that best assimilate real conditions, as well as the effect of normalized geometric parameters α, β, g on the distribution of stress concentration (area and values) of T-joints. The mechanical behaviour has been modeled in 2D using quadrangular and triangular thin-shell elements by the finite element method (FEM). It is the most appropriate approach because it considers all geometric complexities and singularities of the structure, while the efforts as well as the computation time are considerably reduced compared to an experimental study or to complex FE models implementing solid elements. In this study, we use the COMSOL-MULTIPHYSICS® software...