Elastic–plastic fracture analyses for pipeline girth welds with 3D semi-elliptical surface cracks subjected to large plastic bending

Offshore pipelines are subjected to large plastic strain conditions, such as bending accompanied by high internal pressure, during the installation and operation processes. These pipelines are usually constructed by the girth welding method and weldments may contain naturally occurring surface and embedded planar and/or volumetric imperfections and/or defects. It is widely recognized that the existing fracture assessment procedures which are...