Engineering critical assessment for offshore pipelines with 3-D elliptical embedded cracks

Offshore pipelines are usually constructed by girth welding method, while weldments may naturally contain surface or embedded defects. Most existing fracture assessment procedures based on the load-controlled method are not explicitly designed for situations with large plastic strain. In this paper, the nonlinear elastic plastic fracture response of pipeline girth weld with embedded cracks is investigated through 3-D finite element analysis...