Steel jacket platforms are widely used for production and processing of oil from offshore fields. Tubular joints of these structures are susceptible to fatigue or corrosion fatigue cracking due to cyclic wave action, stress concentration, and corrosive environment. The submerged part of the structure is cathodically protected against corrosion by fixing sacrificial anodes at various places. The effect of cathodic protection on the fatigue life of tubular joints was studied by conducting fatigue tests on 13 T and Y-joints in air, under free corrosion, and with cathodic protection. The results of the studies are discussed in this paper.

Issue Section:
Research Papers
Topics:
Fatigue life, Offshore structures, Tubular joints, Corrosion, Cathodic protection, Anodes, Fatigue, Fatigue cracks, Fatigue testing, Ocean engineering, Steel, Stress concentration, Waves
1.
API RP2A, 1993, “Recommended Practice for Planning, Designing and Constructing Fixed Offshore Platforms,” American Petroleum Institute, Washington, DC.
2.
ASTM D1141, 1990, “Standard Specification for Substitute Ocean Water,” American Society for Testing and Materials, Philadelphia, PA.
3.
ASTM E 1049, 1985, “Standard Practices for Cycle Counting in Fatigue Analysis,” American Society for Testing and Materials, Philadelphia, PA.
4.
AWS D1.1-92, 1992, “Structural Welding Code: Steel,” American Welding Society, Thirteenth Edition, Miami, FL.
5.
Austin
J. A.
, and
Dover
W. D.
,
1993
, “
Corrosion Fatigue Crack Growth in Offshore Structures
,”
Transactions of the Institute of Marine Engineers
, Vol.
105
, Part 5, pp.
183
–
195
.
6.
DEn, 1990, “Offshore Installations: Guidance on Design and Construction,” UK Department of Energy, Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, London, UK.
7.
Hopkins, R. M., and Monahan, C. C., 1986, “Calcareous Deposits and the Fatigue Crack Growth Behaviour of Offshore Steels Under Cathodic Protection in Seawater,” Proceedings, Workshop on Cathodic Protection: A + or - in Corrosion Fatigue, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, eds., O. Vosikovsky and K. Leewis, pp. 107–113.
8.
Maahn, E., 1986, “Crack Tip Chemistry Under Cathodic Protection and Its Influence on Fatigue Crack Growth,” Proceedings, Workshop on Cathodic Protection: A + or - in Corrosion Fatigue, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, eds., O. Vosikovsky and K. Leewis, pp. 87–103.
9.
nSoft-E Software User Manual, Version V4.2, 1995, nCode International Limited, Sheffield, UK.
10.
Ramachandra Murthy, D. S., Gandhi, P., Raghava, G., Sreedhar, D. S., and Madhava Rao, A. G., 1997, “Corrosion Fatigue Behaviour of Offshore Tubular Joints,” Final Project Report, Submitted to the Department of Ocean Development, New Delhi, India.
11.
Vosikovsky, O., and Tyson, W. R., 1986, “Effects of Cathodic Protection on Fatigue Life of Steel Welded Joints in Seawater,” Proceedings, Workshop on Cathodic Protection: A + or - in Corrosion Fatigue, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, eds., O. Vosikovsky and K. Leewis, pp. 1–43.
This content is only available via PDF.
Copyright © 1998
 by The American Society of Mechanical Engineers
You do not currently have access to this content.