On stress concentration factors for tubular Y- and T-Joints in frame structures

This paper is written as a result of some years experience with fatigue analysis of offshore jacket structures where the connections are made as tubular joints. The hot spot stresses at the tubular joints in such analysis are normally derived based on parametric equations for stress concentration factors. These stress concentration factors are normally related to the axial force in the brace. It is observed that the hot spot stresses at the crown positions of the tubular joint in some cases are significantly affected by the local loading on the chord and the bending moment in the chord. In order to use the existing formulae in these cases some engineering effort is required to derive correct hot spot stress. This work can be avoided by using the nominal stress in the chord as the basis for calculating the hot spot stress at the crown position instead of using the axial force in the brace as basis for the analysis. This also extends the validity of the equations for stress concentration factors for T- and Y- joints in design standards. The proposed modification makes it also simpler to include the effect of joint flexibility in a proper way. The basis for a proposed revision of the equations for stress concentration factors for these joints is presented in this paper. It is considered that this modification leads to minor changes of the computer code, but that it will save analysis work for engineers and reduce the possibility of calculating incorrect fatigue lives in tubular frame structures.