Re-assessment of offshore structures using the revised HSE fatigue guidance
- Health and Safety Executive, London (United Kingdom). Offshore Safety Division
The re-assessment of existing North Sea structures is an increasingly important issue as the age of platforms increases. Over 50 from a total of approximately 180 fixed installations in the UK sector are now over 15 years old. Fatigue damage has been the main reason for repairs to North Sea structures and the risk of this continues. The fatigue guidance of the Offshore Safety Division of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has recently been revised and published. Fundamental changes have been made to this guidance with several new recommendations including joint classification, basic design S-N curves for welded joints, the thickness effect, the effects of environment and the treatment of low and high stress ranges. To quantify the effects of the new guidance on the fatigue life assessment of offshore strictures, the HSE commissioned a study which included a deep water and a shallow water fixed steel structure and a twin-pontoon semi-submersible. These structures are typical of those operating in the North Sea. These were re-assessed with respect to fatigue lives and the results compared with predictions based on the 1990 guidance. The results and general conclusions are presented in this paper.
- OSTI ID:
- 205389
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-950695-; ISBN 0-7918-1309-6; TRN: IM9615%%169
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: International conference on offshore mechanics and arctic engineering, Copenhagen (Denmark), 18-22 Jun 1995; Other Information: PBD: 1995; Related Information: Is Part Of OMAE 1995 -- Proceedings of the 14. international conference on offshore mechanics and arctic engineering. Volume 3: Materials engineering; Salama, M.M. [ed.] [Conoco, Inc., Ponca City, OK (United States)]; Toyoda, Masao [ed.] [Osaka Univ., Suita, Osaka (Japan)]; Liu, S. [ed.] [Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO (United States)]; Santos, J.F. dos; Kocak, M. [eds.] [GKSS, Geesthacht (Germany)]; Patterson, E.A. [ed.] [Univ. of Sheffield (United Kingdom)]; Berge, S. [ed.] [Univ. of Trondheim (Norway)]; Stacey, A. [ed.] [Health and Safety Executive, London (United Kingdom). Offshore Safety Div.]; PB: 600 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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