THE DESIGN OF FATIGUE EXPERIMENTAL SYSTEM FOR STEEL CATENARY RISER IN TOUCHDOWN ZONE

Touchdown zone (TDZ) is one of the locations vulnerable tofatigue damage. The fatigue life prediction is difficult,which would greatly depend on model experiments. As a result,based on the related theoretical research, a SCR fatigue life testsystem for the TDZ is designed to simulate the actual working condition of riser.This system has considered the variation and combination of tension, bending,internal and external pressure, pipe-soil interaction and other factors. Thetest system can be used for carrying out deepwater riser fatigueexperiments, studying the fatigue failure mechanism of SCR in the TDZ,and predicting its fatigue life accurately.