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ABSTRACT
This paper deals with fatigue analysis of threaded connections
comparing results with experimental results. The fatigue initiation life
results of the tests were assessed using the strain-life approach. The
strain life approach is demonstrated to be effective in dealing with a
number of design variables for fatigue crack initiation problem of
complicated details.
Shoulder
202
Shoulder
Box
Fshoulder
Fthread
Thread
Pin
Ri
10
9
BOX
PIN
Box
PL
SCF
Tooth stress
stress
0
1
10
Resultant stress
11
BOX
PIN
SCF
stress
Resultant stress
2
Tooth stress
1
Shoulder stress
0
1
10
11
PL
203
FULL-SCALE TESTS
Rotating bend fatigue tests were carried out using rotary shouldered
connection NC26 specimens. The specimens were manufactured from
AISI 4145H steel and their mechanical properties are given in Table 1.
The rotating bend fatigue test specimens were loaded in four-pointbending using a servo-hydraulic INSTRON actuator and rotation
provided by an electric motor. Fig. 5 shows a photograph of the
testing. The specimens were made up under torque of 6,329Nm,
applying preload. Alternating Current Field Measurement (ACFM)
(Collins, 1985) was used to inspect and size cracks.
f
=
(2 N f ) b + 'f (2 N f ) c
2
E
'
(1)
'f
'f
b
c
=
=
'f f
1
1 RA
'f = D = ln
0.81
f
1
u
log
0
.
16
log
6
E
E
1 0.00737 e* / 2 1
log D
c = log
4
2.074
4
b=
(2)
2
e* f 3 [log (0.16( u / E )0.81 )log( f / E ) ]
=
10
2
E
(3)
STRAIN-LIFE
INITIATION
APPROACH
FOR
FATIGUE
+
E K'
1 / n'
(4)
'
where n' = b and K ' = f . These relationships yield n = 0.13 and
c
( 'f ) n '
K = 1482 MPa for the material of concern.
CRACK
204
3500
3000
45o
Predicted values
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
0
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
3500
Fig. 8 Comparison of the thread root shape before (right) and after
(left) cold rolling
f (MPa)
1424
f
0.7339
b
-0.08416
c
-0.6473
Algorithm
o Derived Properties 2 (using the theoretical formulae)
n
0.13
The cyclic stress-strain curve defined by Eq. (4) was used as a basis.
The following loading sequence was applied using the strain-life
approach and the corresponding locations of local stress and strain are
given in Fig. 9.
K (MPa)
1482
Test variables
COLD ROLLING: Cold rolling was applied before carrying out the
fatigue tests. Cold rolling was observed to result in other variations in
addition to inducing compressive residual stress at thread roots.
Material properties including hardness and toughness were expected to
be modified and the surface smoothness and root radius were
beneficially altered in terms of fatigue strength. Fig. 8 shows a
comparison of the thread root shape before (right) and after (left) cold
rolling. Other mechanical property changes following cold rolling were
not taken into account in the present study.
The SWT empirical formula (Smith, 1970), shown in Eq. (5), was
used to consider the mean stress effect on fatigue crack initiation life.
The mean stress is calculated from the curve closed by Points C and D
in Fig. 9.
max
' 2
( f )
=
( 2 N f ) 2b + 'f 'f (2 N f ) b + c
2
E
max =
+o
2
205
(5)
120
100
Strain ()
0.2
1,000,000
10,000,000
0.1
500
1000
-0.1
C3 - Not C.R.
40
0
100,000
1500
-0.2
60
20
Stress () in MPa
-0.3
80
0.3
A
-500
D
0
-1000
-50
-1500
-100
-150
-200
-250
-300
-350
The fatigue crack initiation results are shown in Fig. 10. Fatigue crack
initiation life was defined as the number of cycles up to 1mm deep
crack. Nominal stress range () calculated at the outer surface of the
rotary shouldered connection (NC26) under rotating bending was used
as basis for the S-N curve. Fatigue crack initiation lives for the
specimens without cold rolling were between 200,000 290,000 cycles
for = 100MPa. Test C8, which was one-pass cold rolled with
4000psi pressure, shows the increment in the initiation life to 366,000
cycles. The cold rolling pressure is observed to improve fatigue
initiation life. Tests C4 and C5 were three-pass cold rolled with
2000psi and 4000psi respectively. The fatigue life of Test C5 is
shown to be larger than Test C4 which had a fatigue life of 500,000
cycles.
-400
0
90o
180o
angle of circumference
270o
206
may be used for the fatigue initiation life calculation; however, in the
present study the average residual stress around the circumference were
used for the calculations. The average residual stresses -168, -300 and 330MPa were taken to represent one, two and three-pass cold rolling,
respectively.
Fig. 12 shows fatigue lives calculated for preload stress = 800MPa,
SCF = 4.2 and varying residual stress (RS) from 0 to -400MPa. The
SCF was only applied to the nominal stress range. It is observed that
the magnitude of residual stress results in reasonable differences in
fatigue crack initiation life. For un-rolled specimens assumed to have
RS = 0MPa, the fatigue life was calculated at about 160,000 cycles at
= 100MPa. This value is less than the actual measured lives of
200,000 290,000 cycles for the specimens without cold rolling (Fig.
10). However, if the predicted prestress is less than 800MPa, e.g.
600MPa, the initiation life is shown in Fig. 13 to increase to 220,000
cycles. In addition, it is shown in Figs. 14 and 15 that a small decrease
in SCF results in a large increase in fatigue initiation life. For example,
Fig. 14 shows that fatigue life at = 100MPa becomes 1,000,000
cycles for SCF = 3.0, RS = 0.0MPa and Preload = 800MPa.
1000
10
1.E+03
RS=-330 (3 passes)
RS=-400
100
RS = 0
Fig. 12 Fatigue initiation life of the threaded pin (NC26) for varying
residual stresses(RS) with SCF=4.2 and Preload=800MPa
1.E+07
1000
1000
1.E+06
If cold rolling had only induced the changes in residual stress, there
would have been no significant differences in fatigue life between onepass and three-pass cold rolling. This is clear from Figs. 11 and 12,
which show, respectively, the actual measurements of residual stresses
and calculated fatigue initiation lives 220,000 cycles for one-pass and
370,000 cycles for three-pass cold rolling. The test results (Fig. 10),
however, show that there are big differences between Tests C8 and
C5, where one-pass cold rolling and three-pass cold rolling with
4000psi pressure were applied. This observation demonstrates clearly
that the cold rolling involved other factors as well as residual stress.
Simply a few changes can be mentioned to result from cold rolling.
One is SCF decrease due to the thread root shape changes after cold
rolling. The cold rolling results in not only root shape change but also
smoother surface. Therefore, surface smoothness should be mentioned
along with SCF. From the cold rolling, possible crack initiators are
blunted and consequently removed. Fig. 8 illustrates an example of
root shape changes and smoother surface. In particular, the results of
Tests C4 and C8 suggest a possible role of surface smoothness. To
evaluate these results, the effects of the cold rolling pressure and the
number of rolling passes should be well understood.
RS=-300 (2 passes)
1.E+06
1.E+05
Fig. 14 Fatigue initiation life of the threaded pin (NC26) for varying
SCF with Preload=800 and RS=0.0MPa
RS=-168 (1pass)
1.E+05
Fatigue initiation life (N
(2N
i) I )
1.E+04
RS=-100
1.E+04
SCF = 8
AISI 4145H steel, RS=0.0, Preload=800MPa
Using SWT Formula for mean stress effect
RS=0 MPa
10
1.E+03
SCF = 3
100
1000
RS = -400
SCF(Kt)=3
SCF=4.2
SCF=5
SCF=6
SCF=7
SCF=8
Preload=0
PreLoad=0 MPa
100
SCF(Kt)=3
SCF=4.2
SCF=5
SCF=6
SCF=7
SCF=8
SCF = 3
100
PreLoad=200
PreLoad=400
Preload=1000
PreLoad=600
PreLoad=800
SCF = 8
PreLoad=1000
10
1.E+03
10
1.E+03
1.E+04
1.E+05
1.E+06
1.E+07
1.E+04
1.E+05
1.E+06
1.E+07
Fig. 15 Fatigue initiation life of the threaded pin (NC26) for varying
SCF with Preload=800 and RS=-330MPa
Fig. 13 Fatigue initiation life of the threaded pin (NC26) for varying
Preloads with SCF=4.2 and RS=0.0MPa
207
Preload=0
Preload=1000
CONCLUSIONS
1000
PreLoad=0 MPa
100
PreLoad=200
PreLoad=400
PreLoad=600
PreLoad=800
PreLoad=1000
10
1.E+03
1.E+04
1.E+05
1.E+06
1.E+07
Fig. 16 Fatigue initiation life of the threaded pin (NC26) for varying
Preload with SCF=4.2, RS=-330MPa
Firstly, the cold rolling pressure may be thought as a more
important variable than the number of cold rolling passes in terms of
embedded residual stress magnitude, because residual stress is a
product of an uneven yield and relaxation. Simply, a higher pressured
rolling induces a bigger plastic strain and has more possibility to bring
about a higher residual stress if the other conditions such as geometry
and the contact condition between the roller and specimen are kept the
same. Once materials yield by the first rolling pass, the stress-strain
curve generally exhibits larger elastic range due to strain hardening.
Therefore the second or the third pass of cold rolling causes less plastic
strain than the first.
Finally a subsequent pass of cold rolling is
expected to result in less increment of residual stress.
Secondly, the number of cold rolling passes is thought to involve
not only surface smoothness but also even residual stress distribution.
Hence, the benefit of multipass-rolling should be emphasised from the
probabilistic viewpoint, given that fatigue cracks initiate at the weakest
point and multipass-rolling enhances surface conditions evenly if not
considerably.
It can be said from the above discussion that Test C4 has a
smoother surface. However, it is not clear which test between C4 and
C8 has a higher compressive residual stress. Fig. 10 shows that Test
C4 has a larger fatigue life than Test C8. Of course, this difference
can be attributed to scatter commonly observed in fatigue tests. Figs.
14 and 15 show the fatigue life changes from varying SCF. These
changes are contrasted with those shown in Fig. 12 and the lower SCF
in Test C4, resulting from its smoother surface, may be claimed to be
one of the main factors of its larger fatigue life than Test C8.
Fig. 12 to Fig. 16 shows the sensitivities of fatigue initiation life to
related variables. It is seen that SCF has bigger effect on fatigue life
than residual stress.
The effects of preload should be borne in mind in the design of
threaded connections. When preload is insufficient, the shoulders of
the pin and box will be open under tension or bending. This will cause
serious increase in SCF at the pin thread roots because the entire
applied force will be transmitted through the threads. Here the SCF is
defined as the ratio of applied local stress at the threaded roots to the
nominal stress at the surface of the rotary shouldered connection. The
fatigue life increases from the low values of preload, e.g. 0 to 400MPa,
shown in Figs. 13 and 14 may not be feasible, because the low values
REFERENCES
American Petroleum Institute (API) (1997), Specification for Rotary
Drill Stem Elements, API Specification 7, Thirty-ninth Edition.
208