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ABSTRACT
As presented by Van der Vegte in 1995, the strength of axially loaded
uniplanar T-joints is governed by a combination of (local) joint failure
and failure due to (global) chord in-plane bending moments. The current
study, which is more rigorous compared to the research in 1995, presents
the effect of chord length, boundary conditions and chord end conditions
on the strength of uniplanar T-joints. Comparisons are made with the new
T-joint strength formulations developed by API (2003) and ISO (2004).
Finally, a simple ultimate strength equation is proposed for uniplanar Tjoints with compensating chord end moments. An interaction contour is
established to describe the effect of chord in-plane bending moments on
the strength of uniplanar T-joints.
In 1995, Van der Vegte proposed the following approach, using finite
element (FE) analyses, to separate and evaluate the two aforementioned
failure modes. A T-joint under brace axial load is numerically analyzed
twice : once excluding and once including the effect of chord in-plane
bending moments. In the first analysis, without the effect of chord inplane bending moments, compensating (negative) in-plane bending
moments are applied to the chord ends. By forcing the chord end
moments to be equal to those caused by to the brace load, the bending
moments at the cross sections at the crown points remain zero throughout
the loading history. The second analysis simply considers an ordinary
T-joint without chord end moments.
INTRODUCTION
In recent years, a number of references were published regarding the
effect of chord stress on the strength of tubular circular hollow section
(CHS) joints. Numerical studies carried out by Pecknold et al. (2000),
Van der Vegte et al. (2001) and Choo et al. (2003) identified the
influence of tensile or compressive chord pre-stress on the strength of
either thin- or thick walled X-joints for various types of brace load.
Other research presented by Pecknold et al. (2001) and Van der Vegte
et al. (2002) focused on the chord stress effect of uniplanar gap K-joints.
For the third type of the basic uniplanar joint configurations, the T-joint,
the evaluation of the chord stress effect is not as straightforward as for
X- and K-joints. Unlike the X-joint configuration, where axial brace
loads do not cause equilibrium induced chord loads, for uniplanar Tjoints, axial brace loads will lead to chord in-plane bending moments,
which will affect the joint strength.
For uniplanar T-joints under axial brace load, several failure modes can
be identified. Depending on the chord length, failure may occur by
chord face plastification (local failure) or by a combination of overall
chord in-plane bending and shear (chord member failure). In most cases,
these two failure modes are strongly related. Experiments alone may
not provide the data necessary to quantify the effect of in-plane bending
279
FE MODELLING
The numerical analyses were carried out with the finite element
package ABAQUS/Standard (2003). Due to symmetry in geometry and
loading, only one quarter of each joint has been modelled, whereas the
appropriate boundary conditions have been applied to the nodes in the
various planes of symmetry.
The joints are modelled using eight-noded thick shell elements
employing reduced integration (ABAQUS element S8R). Seven
integration points through the shell thickness are applied.
For both ISO and API, the strength equations developed for T-joints and
chord stress functions are briefly described and evaluated in section
Comparison of T-joint data with existing or proposed design rules.
For all joints except = 0.98, the geometry of the welds at the bracechord intersection has been modelled using shell elements. Previous
research (Van der Vegte et al., 1991) revealed that the use of shell
elements to simulate the welds, provides accurate predictions of the
load-displacement response of axially loaded uniplanar and multiplanar
T- and X-joints. The dimensions of the welds in the numerical model
are in accordance with the specifications recommended by the AWS
(1992).
RESEARCH PROGRAMME
The configuration of uniplanar T-joints and the definition of the
geometric parameters are illustrated in Fig. 1. The geometric parameters
of the T-joints considered are summarized in Table 1. For all joints, the
chord diameter d0 = 406.4 mm. Each of the 16 combinations of and 2
has been analyzed for the following five values of the chord length
parameter (= 2l0/d0) : 12, 16, 20, 24 and 28.
800
t1
Stress [N/m m ]
=2l0/d0
= d1/d0
2 = d0/t0
= t1/t0
N1
d1
l1 = 4d1
d0
600
S355
400
200
t0
l0
0
10
20
30
40
Strain [% ]
0.25
0.48
0.73
T1
T2
T3
2 = 25.4
T5
T6
T7
2 = 36.9
T9
T10
T11
2 = 50.8
T13
T14
T15
2 = 63.5
- all joints are analyzed for = 12, 16, 20, 24 and 28
- d0 = 406.4 mm
Fig. 2. Engineering and true stress - true strain curves for S355
0.98
T4
T8
T12
T16
The steel grade used for the tubular members is S355 with fy = 355
N/mm2 and fu = 510 N/mm2.
280
attached to the chord end. For clarity, the last row of chord elements is
not displayed. Chord bending is modelled through a pure bending
moment applied to the reference node located in the centre of the chord
end cross section. Boundary conditions are applied to the reference
node to react the brace load. Because of the rigid behaviour of the
beams, the chord-end cross section cannot deform, but is able to rotate.
As this set of boundary conditions is expected to give a more consistent
description of the bending behaviour at the chord end as compared to
the approach shown in Fig. 3a, these boundary conditions are adopted
in the present study.
N1
M0,chord end
Point loads
Shell elements, t = 40 mm
=
Fig. 4. Loading scheme and moment distribution of T-joints
From Fig. 5 it becomes clear that for this particular T-joint, the loadovalization curves are identical for values equal to or larger than 20.
Similar observations can be made from Fig. 6, depicting the ultimate
strength of T-joints ( = 0.73) with compensating moments against the
chord length parameter . The strength of the T-joints is independent of
if 20. This is not only noticed for = 0.73, but also for the other
values. It may therefore be concluded that a chord length of 10d0 is
sufficiently long to exclude any influence on the ultimate strength of Tjoints caused by chord end conditions.
Strategy
In order to exclude the effect of equilibrium induced chord in-plane
bending moments on the strength of uniplanar T-joints, compensating
(negative) in-plane bending moments are applied to the chord ends,
illustrated in Fig. 4. By forcing the chord end moments M0,chord end to be
proportional to the brace load N1 according to Eq. 1, the bending
moments at the cross sections beside the intersection of chord and brace
(i.e. crown points) remain zero throughout the loading history, depicted in
the moment distribution diagrams.
M 0,chord end = 0.25 N1 (l 0 - d1 )
For values less than 20, the effect of depends on the values of and
2. For the four values considered, the chord length parameter is not
seen to have any effect on the strength of the (thick walled) T-joints with
2 = 25.4, illustrated in Fig. 6 for = 0.73. Although not presented, for
the four joints with = 0.25, the joint strength is again independent of .
(1)
Because the moment M0,chord end is directly related to the brace load, the
chord end moments may lead to premature chord failure depending on
and 2. To avoid member failure at the chord ends taking place prior to
joint failure, the yield strength of the elements close to the chord ends is
increased. Only those elements for which the in-plane bending moments
at ultimate load would cause overall yielding, are reinforced. The zone of
high-strength elements is kept as small as possible to prevent possible
influence of the reinforced zone on the joint strength.
On the other hand, for T-joints with relatively short chords ( 16) in
combination with values exceeding 0.25 or 2 values larger than 25.4,
shorter chords cause an increase of ultimate strength due to the stronger
effect of chord end conditions. This influence becomes more significant
for increasing values of and 2, as chord ovalisation not only becomes
more severe (for larger values) but also dampens out more slowly along
the chord length (for increasing 2 values). Hence, the largest strength
281
enhancing effect is found for the T-joints with = 0.98 and 2 = 63.5.
Using the strength of the T-joint with = 28 as reference, a strength
enhancement of 10 % is found for the T-joint with = 12.
24
32
2 = 63.5
2 = 50.8
2 = 36.9
2 = 25.4
16
N1 / fy0 t02
32
= 28
= 24
= 20
= 16
= 12
0
0.00
0.02
0.04
0.06
0.08
24
16
0.10
/ d0
8
32
2 = 63.5
2 = 50.8
2 = 36.9
2 = 25.4
= 0.73
20
25
30
Interaction Contour
Fig. 8 displays the interaction contour derived from the FE results
obtained for uniplanar T-joints. Fig. 8a presents all data points, while
Fig. 8b shows the data for 2 = 63.5. Interaction contours make it
possible to quantify the contribution of local joint failure and overall
chord bending failure. For the T-joints with compensating moments,
the joints with = 20 are taken as reference. Hence, on the vertical axis
of Fig. 8, Qf depicts the strength N1,u of each T-joint divided by the
strength N1,u,loc of the corresponding T-joint (with = 20) with
compensating chord end moments. As the in-plane bending chord
moments cause compressive stresses at the brace-chord intersection, the
moments on the horizontal axis are assumed as negative.
16
10
15
24
10
15
20
25
30
282
Nu =
f y0 t 02
sin
with the strength factor Qu for T-joints under brace compression given
as:
Q u = 2.8 + (20 + 0.8 ) 1.6 but 2.8 + 36 1.6
Q f = 1.0 + k1[
0.8
ISO
N y,0
]- k2 [
M 0,ipb
M pl,0
] k 3 [(
N 0,p 2
M0 2
) +(
) ]
N y,0
M pl,0
Qf
2 = 5 0 .8
2 = 3 6 .9
0.2
A PI
0.0
-0.8
-0.6
-0.4
-0.2
(5)
ISO (2004)
2 = 2 5 .4
-1.0
(4)
The constants k1, k2 and k3 have different values for each brace load
condition and joint configuration. For T-joints under brace compression,
k1 = 0.3, k2 = 0.0 and k3 = 0.8. A factor of 1.18 should be applied to this
set of equations to obtain the mean strength values.
2 = 6 3 .5
0.0
M0,ipb/Mpl,0
(a) All data
1.0
0.8
Nu =
IS O
0.6
f y0 t 02
sin
(6)
Q u Qf
Qf
= 0 .9 8
0.4
= 0 .7 3
API
Q = 1.0
for 0.6
= 0 .2 5
Q =
0.0
-1.0
-0.8
-0.6
-0.4
-0.2
(7)
with :
= 0 .4 8
0.2
-1.2
N 0,p
2
2
where M 0 = M 0,
ipb + M 0,opb
0.6
0.4
(3)
Eq. 2 shows the general format Qf to account for the effect of chord
stress on the ultimate strength :
1.0
-1.2
(2)
QuQf
0.0
M0,ipb/Mpl,0
0.3
(1 - 0.833 )
(8)
for > 0.6
Eq. 9 describes the factor Qf to account for chord axial load and chord
bending moments :
Q f = 1.0 U 2
(9)
U 2 = k1 (
In 1991, the API Task Group for Tubular Connection Research initiated
a ten-year plan to upgrade the API RP2A. Extensive FE research by
Pecknold et al. (2000, 2001) was conducted to extend the available
database. As part of this project, a moment-free baseline for uniplanar
T-joints is proposed (API, 2003). After removing the factor of safety (=
1.60), the general format of the capacity equation is :
M 0, ipb 2
M 0,opb 2
N0 2
) + k2(
) + k2(
)
N y,0
M pl,0
M pl,0
(10)
283
not presented in Fig. 10, these T-joints have a large value ( = 0.73 or
0.98). As mentioned before, especially for these T-joints, the chord end
conditions are found to have a pronounced strength enhancing
influence.
- For many cases, the ISO equations overpredict the strength of the Tjoints analyzed, as can be concluded from the mean value of the FE/
prediction ratios given in Table 2. It may be concluded that for chord
bending moments, the reduction of the chord stress factor Qf is not
covered adequately, also suggested by Fig. 8a. As a result, when using
the ISO strength equations, a large number (24) of the T-joints are
predicted to fail by member failure (M0,ipb/Mpl,0 < -1). For these 24
joints, failure load is determined by assuming M0,ipb,u = Mpl,0 in the
chord cross sections beside the brace. Would the data for which ISO
predicts chord member failure have been removed from the database,
the comparison with the FE data would have been slightly worse, as
shown in the third column of Table 2.
- The performance of the API strength predictions on the FE database is
better than that of ISO. Not only is the average of FE/prediction ratios
for API larger than 1.0, but also the scatter is less, resulting in a smaller
value for the coefficient of variation in comparison with the ISO
predictions. In general, the strength predictions derived with the API
formulations are lower than the values obtained with ISO primarily
caused by the smaller values (i.e. stronger reductions) of APIs chord
stress factor Qf.
40
1.4
API
1.2
Qu
30
FE / ISO
1.0
20
ISO
10
0.8
0.6
2 = 63 .5
2 = 50 .8
0.4
0
0.0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
2 = 36 .9
2 = 25 .4
0.2
1.0
2 = 14 .5
0.0
10
15
20
25
30
20
25
30
(a) ISO
1.4
1.2
FE / API
1.0
0.8
0.6
2 = 6 3 .5
2 = 5 0 .8
0.4
For both sets of equations, Fig. 10 plots the ratios between FE- and
predicted strength as a function of the chord length parameter , while
Table 2 summarizes the most relevant parameters obtained from the
comparisons. FE/prediction ratios < 1.0 imply that a code provides (unconservative) strength predictions, exceeding the values found in the
FE analyses.
2 = 3 6 .9
2 = 2 5 .4
0.2
2 = 1 4 .5
0.0
10
15
(b) API
284
CoV
Maximum Minimum
ratio
ratio
95
1.067
0.077
1.31
0.94
95
0.941
0.104
1.30
0.80
71
0.921
0.110
1.30
0.80
60
40
30
20
10
2
A
D E
B C
0
0.0
(11)
0.6
0.8
1.0
2
3.9
0.85 0.55
1 0.8
(12)
(13)
The same format was used by Liu et al. (2004) to describe the chord
stress effect of RHS T- and X-joints under axial brace load. Regression
analyses are conducted to determine the values of the regression constants
A, B, C and D.
For 2 = 14.5, Eq. 12 is displayed for 0.6 only. For large values (
> 0.9), Eq. 12 is expected to overestimate the strength for T-joints with 2
= 14.5. Evidence on axially loaded thick walled X-joints (Choo et al.,
2003) suggests that the strength becomes proportional to t0 instead of t02
observed for thin-walled joints. Furthermore, FE analyses on thick walled,
large T-joints with compensating chord end moments may be
influenced by chord end conditions as the zone of high-strength chord
elements modelled to prevent premature chord failure spreads over a
significant part of the chord member.
No. of data
33
0.4
The 16 data points obtained in the present study for the T-joints with =
20 are used as input for the regression analyses. In addition, 13 data
points analyzed by Van der Vegte (1995) for which the chord is
considered sufficiently long to exclude the influence of chord end
restraints as well as four data on T-joints with = 0.91 [unpublished
results] are included in the regression analyses. The final ultimate
strength equation is given in Eq. 12, while the results of the regression
analyses are summarized in Table 3. Fig. 11 displays all data points as a
function of as well as the predictions obtained from Eq. 12.
f y0 t 02
0.2
N1,u
50
N1,u / fy0t02
Number
of data
2 = 63.5
2 = 50.8
2 = 36.9
2 = 25.4
2 = 14.5
CoV.
0.044
The final equation is given in Eq. 14, while the results of the regression
analyses are summarized in Table 4.
f(n) = (1.0 - n )(0.1 + 0.008 )
285
(14)
with n = M0,ipb/Mpl,0.
Table 4. Results of the regression analyses for the interaction contour
(Eq. 14)
No. of data
69
Mean
0.994
CoV.
0.055
REFERENCES
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Sorensen, Inc, USA.
American Petroleum Institute (1993). Recommended Practice for
Planning Designing and Constructing Fixed Offshore Platforms Working Stress Design, API RP2A-WSD, 20th Edition.
American Petroleum Institute (2003). Proposed Updates to Tubular Joint
Static Strength Provisions in API RP2A 21st Edition.
American Welding Society (1992). Structural Welding Code, AWS
D1.1-92.
Choo, YS, Qian, XD, Liew, JYR, and Wardenier, J (2003). Static
Strength of Thick-Walled CHS X-Joints Part II. Effect of Chord
Stresses, J of Constructional Steel Research. Vol 59, No 10 pp
1229-1250.
Dier, AF, and Lalani, M (1998). New Code Formulations for Tubular
Joint Static Strength, Proc 8th Int Symp on Tubular Structures,
Singapore, pp 107-116.
International Organization for Standardization (2004). Petroleum and
Natural Gas Industries - Fixed Steel Offshore Structures, ISO DIS19902.
Liu, DK, Wardenier, J, and Vegte, GJ van der (2004). New Chord Stress
Functions for Rectangular Hollow Section Joints, Proc 14th Int
Offshore and Polar Engineering Conf, Toulon, France, Vol IV, pp
178-185.
Lu, LH, Winkel, GD de, Yu, Y, and Wardenier, J (1994). Deformation
Limit for the Ultimate Strength of Hollow Section Joints, Proc 6th Int
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Conf on Offshore Mechanics and Arctic Engineering, Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil.
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X-Joints, Int J Offshore and Polar Engineering, ISOPE, Vol 1, No 3,
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Vegte, GJ van der (1995). The Static Strength of Uniplanar and
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Eqs. 12 & 14
Number
of data
Mean
CoV
95
1.000
0.053
Minimum Maximum
ratio
ratio
0.91
1.18
1.4
FE / Eqs.12 &14
1.2
1.0
0.8
0.6
2 = 63 .5
2 = 50 .8
0.4
2 = 36 .9
2 = 25 .4
0.2
2 = 14 .5
0.0
10
15
20
25
30
286