Pile Fatigue Failures. IV: Fatigue Description

Abstract

Laboratory fatigue tests were performed on girth butt weld specimens taken from both vertical piles and batter piles salvaged from the terminal. Specimens were selected to be representative of welds found to be acceptable by irt‐situ radiographic inspection. All batter pile tests and all but two vertical pile tests were terminated when the number of applied stress cycles exceeded design requirements current in 1974–75. These cycles were in addition to those that had been applied earlier during the construction period. Results gave assurance that piles containing welds found to be normal quality by on‐site inspection would function adequately with little expectation of fatigue failure. Available data from the tests are used to develop a probabilistic approach to fatigue life estimation, including the effects of mismatch in girth butt welds.