Exceptional Fatigue Performances for Umbilical’s Super Duplex Seam Welded Tube Solutions

Abstract

Since the last five years, an innovative technology for umbilical’s seam welded super duplex stainless steel tubes (grade 2507, UNS S32750) has been developed in order to meet new technical challenges. An extensive program of qualification, based on 4 dimensions covering the full manufacturing range, i.e. internal diameter and wall thickness, has been set. More than 11000 test results demonstrated the efficiency and the stability of the manufacturing process. The results were also confirming the expected properties of the tubes, in term of mechanical characteristics, corrosion resistance and manufacturing tolerances. At the end of this qualification phase, a Type Approval Certificate was delivered by an independent and official certifying authority demonstrating then, the suitability of the product for offshore static applications. The next step was to confirm the fatigue performance of the product to meet the requirements of umbilicals for dynamic applications. This paper describes how a dedicated fatigue test protocol has been jointly defined between a Major O&G player and the tube supplier. This protocol has been built in order to test the 3 dimensions already produced during the first step of the qualification, considering tube samples with and without orbital weld. Fatigue test programs are known to be very sensitive to the test parameters, i.e. temperature, test frequency and dimensional properties of the samples. As a consequence, special attention is paid to the description of the testing methodology, the selection of the acceptance criteria and the definition of the testing parameters. Finally, the results of this program are presented and discussed in order to assess the capability of the product with respect to the defined acceptance criteria.