Marine Structures 23 (2010) 209225

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Marine Structures
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/
marstruc

Fatigue design of steel containment cylinders for CNG

ship application
Sverre Valsgrd*, Inge Lotsberg, Gudnnur Sigurdsson, Kim Mrk
Det Norske Veritas, Hvik, Norway

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: A reliable methodology is required for fatigue design of steel cylin-
Received 10 February 2010 ders for Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) carriers in order to meet
Accepted 28 April 2010 target safety level at an acceptable cost. This includes description of
physical models that represents actual long term fatigue capacity of
Keywords: the Cargo Containment cylinders. The design methodology includes
Compressed natural gas (CNG)
length of welds, fabrication tolerances, fabrication methodology and
Fatigue design
non destructive testing. It also involves denition of characteristic
Steel cylinders
CNG carrier values for loading and capacity in addition to recommended Design
Fabrication tolerances Fatigue Factors. Three alternative fatigue design procedures requiring
Safety level different Design Fatigue Factors to achieve a system target safety level
Design fatigue factors of annual probability of failure less or equal to 10
5 are presented.
2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

High strength steel is proposed as a means to reduce steel weights of steel cylinders for transportation
of compressed natural gas (CNG) on ships. These pipes are usually large diameter pipes, mostly with
a diameter of about 4200 (y1 m) with wall thickness in the range of 18 to 35 mm depending on the
pressure and temperature limit used for the design. This implies use of pipes that are welded together
from rolled plates with a longitudinal weld seam. The longitudinal welds made during production of the
pipes are made from both sides. The stress in the circumferential direction of the pipes due to internal
pressure is approximately twice that of the longitudinal direction.
It is well known that the fatigue capacity of welded steel is rather independent of material yield
strength. Hence, the use of steel grades higher than X80, which is commonly used in present design

* Corresponding author. Tel.: 47 951 81 860; fax.: 47 67 57 99 11.

E-mail address: sverre.valsgard@dnv.com (S. Valsgrd).

0951-8339/$ see front matter 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.marstruc.2010.04.001
210 S. Valsgrd et al. / Marine Structures 23 (2010) 209225

proposals, will be of limited practical use as the design will be governed by fatigue. Thus due to a high
stress range resulting from a load cycle from lling and emptying of the pipes fatigue of the weld seam is
considered to be a challenging design issue even if such designs are associated with rather few load cycles.
A main reason for this challenge is the signicant length of longitudinal welds that are subjected to mainly
the same circumferential stress range. Compared to pipelines, where fatigue of the longitudinal welds is
often of lesser interest due to a limited number of shut-downs during the lifetime, fatigue design of CNG
cylinders is more challenging.
The fatigue capacity of welded structures is reduced by increased thickness and weld length as
explained by Lotsberg and Larsen in Ref. [1]. The thickness effect has been accounted for in many
fatigue design standards since it was rst introduced by the Department of Energy in 1983 [2]. The
effect of weld length on fatigue capacity is to the authors knowledge not explicitly included in other
design codes than that of the DNV-RP-C203 (2008) where it was rst introduced in 2001 [3]. However,
this effect has been implicitly included in codes such as the DNV CNG rules which in its present 2008
version [4] are calibrated for a weld length in the order of the total weld length in the largest CNG ship
designs proposed so far.
For development of reliable fatigue design rules for transportation of CNG also other issues should
be considered such as fabrication tolerances and how these are considered in the fatigue design,
consequences of a fatigue failure and Design Fatigue Factor to be used. These issues are linked together
and recommended Design Fatigue Factors are dependent on fatigue analysis procedure used together
with fabrication requirements and consideration of target safety level. This includes also denition of
characteristic values related to loading and fatigue capacity, and uncertainties associated with the
different design methodologies.
The overall safety for a ship with CNG pipes shall according to the DNV CNG rules [4] be equivalent
to, or better than, comparable to LNG (liquid natural gas) vessels built and operated according to
traditional ship rules and industry practices with respect to life, property and environment. This
stipulates also the safety level for design of the CNG pipes as the failure modes from these should not
contribute signicantly to the total risk for loss of structure. A failure of a CNG pipe is considered to be
associated with large consequences. Hence, in the CNG rules [4] the annual target system reliability has
been set to 10-5 based on comparison with damage statistics from LNG carriers. This is also in line with
using Safety Class High in DNV-OS-F101 rules [5].
Accumulation of fatigue damage is a gradual process. Thus, the accumulated probability of a fatigue
failure is increasing with time in operation. Thus a target value of 10-5 will apply to the last year in
service while the calculated probability of a fatigue failure will be lower during preceding years.

2. Behaviour of pipes subjected to lling and emptying

2.1. Effect of fabrication tolerances

During fabrication of cylinders or pipes for gas storage the out-of-roundness is sought reduced to
a minimum after welding through plastic expansion of the pipe wall in the radial direction by mechanical
forces. However, due to spring back force from elasticity some out-of-roundness may likely remain. In
the DNV pipeline rules [5] the out-of-roundness is dened as dOOR dmax
dmin. This means that d0 in

Inflection point

Maximum bending
moment

Fig. 1. Fabrication tolerance from ovality of cylinders.

 S. Valsgrd et al. / Marine Structures 23 (2010) 209225 211

Fig. 1 is dOOR/4. dOOR in the DNV rules is specied equal 15 mm for normal control and equal 10 mm for
enhanced control.
The out-of-roundness of fabricated pipe elements results in increased stress due to a bending
moment over the wall thickness, see Fig. 1. The eccentricity due to out-of-roundness is a function of
tension in the hoop direction of the pipe that will be reduced as the internal pressure is increased and
the hoop tension is increased. Thus the bending stress over the wall thickness is a non-linear function
of the internal pressure as explained by Lotsberg [6].
The maximum bending stress as function of membrane stress and internal pressure can be obtained
from DNV-RP-C203 as


12dOOR pd
sb sm tanh l (1)
ptdl 8
This corresponds to a stress concentration factor based on membrane stress equal to


12dOOR pd
SCF 1 tanh l (2)
ptdl 8
where
r r
N 12sm
l (3)
EI Et 2
This equation gives the maximum bending stress due to ovality in Fig. 1. The bending stress at the
inection point is zero. Therefore, the bending stress is also dependent on position of longitudinal weld
relative to the position of maximum bending moment. This depends on the production procedure used
for pipe fabrication.
Also the following equation from BS 7910:2005 [7] can be used for calculation of bending stress in
the pipe wall:

1:5dmax
dmin
sb sm n     o (4)
t 1 0:5 pm 1
n2 E d
t=t3

400

Membran stress
350
Bending stress DNV-RP-C203

300 Bending stress ABAQUS

Bending stress BS7910 mean p

250
Stress (MPa)

Bending stress BS7910 max p

200

150

100

50

0
0 50 100 150 200 250
Pressure (bars)

Fig. 2. Stress in circumferential direction of a cylinder subjected to internal pressure.

212 S. Valsgrd et al. / Marine Structures 23 (2010) 209225

where pm is the maximum pressure at the operating condition being assessed. In section for remarks it
is stated that If under fatigue loading pm varies, use the mean value during the time interval
considered. sm is the membrane stress in the circumferential direction due to internal pressure.
Results by use of the different equations are derived for a pipe with 4200 diameter and wall thickness
31.8 mm using tolerance requirements corresponding to enhanced control (dOOR 10 mm) from DNV-
OS-F101 [5] which is referred to in the DNV rules for CNG ships, [4]. The results for this tolerance are
shown in Fig. 2. The results have been compared with nite element analysis using ABAQUS [8] where
non-linear geometry is accounted for. It is observed that the analytical approaches for derivation of
bending stress in the pipe wall provide approximately the same results as derived from the ABAQUS
analysis.
Assuming that the results from ABAQUS analysis are the most accurate, it is observed that
the bending stress from BS 7910 is non-conservative using maximum pressure. However, using
mean pressure, as recommended in the document, provides safe results close to that from the
ABAQUS analysis. The bending stress derived from DNV-RP-C203 is also close to the ABAQUS
analysis.
One may question how to best account for the fabrication tolerances in a design procedure?
There are different alternative ways to go. One alternative is to include the effect of this explicitly in
the design procedure. Another alternative is to account for it on the fatigue capacity side by
establishing SN data that includes relevant fabrication tolerances. This can be derived by per-
forming fatigue testing of rings fabricated in the same way as the pipes. However, it should be
remembered that the effect of the tolerance on bending stress is a non-linear function of the
membrane stress and this means that the SN data are in principle valid only for the stress range used
to derive the test data.

2.2. Effect of weld length on fatigue capacity

Test specimens used for fatigue testing are normally smaller than the prototype details or
components. The applicability of the test data for the prototype depends on the stress distri-
bution at the hot spot region. For a typical welded joint in a steel structure the difference in
extent of the hot spot region (and the weld length) differs little between specimen and proto-
type, whereas the difference is signicant for a pipe with a longitudinal weld that is subjected to
the same stress range normal to the weld. Fatigue crack growth is normally initiated from small
defects at the transition between weld material and base material. Thus, the probability of
a large defect in the hot spot region increases with increasing weld length and a specimen
having a long weld is expected to have a shorter fatigue life than that with a short weld, which
is also observed in tests.
A weld length correction factor might be included in the mean equation for fatigue capacity
similarly to that used for the thickness effect in equation for SN curve

!k2 !k
l t
log N log a
mlog
mlog
mlog Ds (5)
lref tref

here, lref is a reference weld length, l is the actual weld length and k2 is a weld length exponent factor.
Based on the capacity of a weakest link system k2 was determined to be about 0.12 [1]. The value of k2
was also assessed based on 120 test data of cruciform joints with weld lengths from 50 to 450 mm [9].
By calculating standard deviation for different trial values of k2, the best t was achieved with
k2 0.070.08 as shown in Fig. 3.
It should be noted that the standard deviation in the resulting fatigue capacity is reduced as the
weld length is increased. This is seen from Fig. 4. This was taken into account when a design SN curve
in DNV-RP-C203 was established where the weld length effect was included. This is an explanation for
the factor 0.10 on the weld length term as it can be observed that this number is not simply a product of
m times k2 as might be expected by going from the mean equation (5) to the design equation (6). Thus
 S. Valsgrd et al. / Marine Structures 23 (2010) 209225 213

Fig. 3. Standard deviation in fatigue test as function of length exponent.

the design equation corresponding to mean minus 2 standard deviations in test data in DNV-RP-C203
taking the weld length into consideration reads
! !k
l t
log N log a
0:10log weld ns
mlog
mlog Ds (6)
lref tref

where lweld is the length of weld subjected to the same stress range; lref is the reference weld length
with similar weld quality and fatigue strength as the tested specimen; ns, number of similar connec-
tions subjected to the same stress range; log a, constant in the SN curve or cut off value with the log N
axis dened as mean minus 2 standard deviations in test data; Ds stress range; t actual thickness;
tref reference thickness, see DNV-RP-C203; k thickness exponent, see DNV-RP-C203.

Fig. 4. Capacity distribution as function of number of small scale test specimens.

214 S. Valsgrd et al. / Marine Structures 23 (2010) 209225

3. Assessment of reliability

3.1. Relation between analysis models, design format and reliability

A design format for compressed natural gas carriers can be written as

nDsSd DFF  NRd DsSd (7)

where nDsSd is the number of cycles at characteristic stress range DsSd ; DFF is the Design Fatigue
Factor required to achieve a required target safety level; NRd DsSd is the number of cycles to failure at
characteristic stress range DsSd .
The basic safety format may look simple in principle. However, several questions are raised when
establishing recommendations to be included in design rules. These can be listed as

1. How to dene characteristic stress ranges and number of stress cycles to be used in design?
2. Should additional bending stress range from fabrication tolerances be accounted for in derivation
of characteristic stress range or should it be included in the values for the characteristic fatigue
capacity?
3. How is the weld length accounted for in the fatigue test data and the design procedure that is being used?
4. How to dene characteristic fatigue capacity based on fatigue tests?
Most often in design rules the characteristic fatigue capacity is dened as 97.7% probability of
survival. The SN curves are said to be established based on mean minus two standard deviations
for relevant experimental data in a logarithmic format (ref. e.g. DNV-RP-C203 [3]). However, a rule
that requires a high safety level may also dene the characteristic fatigue capacity as mean minus
three standard deviations (ref. e.g. DNV CNG Rules [4]).

5. How are correlation effects in loading and fatigue capacity accounted for in the design procedure?
If the pressure in one cylinder is independent from another cylinder, there is no correlation effect
in loading but it is full correlation if there is a connection between the cylinders such that the
pressure in these is the same. Correlation effects on fatigue capacity may be considered to be
accounted for through the weld length effect when this is included in the design procedure.

6. What is recommended Design Fatigue Factor to be used to achieve a required safety level?

Based on this it is understood that it may be possible to dene different design procedures that may
lead to designs with an acceptable safety. However, it is important that all required parameters in the
design procedure are well dened and that nally a calibration of each procedure is made based on the
actual safety format and appropriate denitions of the parameters involved. Thus different safety formats
or different denition of the parameters involved in the actual design procedure will also lead to different
requirements to Design Fatigue Factors (DFF). Compared to other structural components there are two
important issues that are considered to be signicant for the design format to be decided:

- Effect of fabrication tolerances on design load effect or characteristic stress range.

- Effect of weld length on fatigue capacity.

These issues are considered more in the following.

A limit state function is formulated based on the design format of equation (7). This limit state
function is solved by a rst order reliability method.

3.2. Assessment of SN data distributions

The scatter in test data may be explained by a number of different parameters such as size of test
specimen, fabrication tolerances in terms of eccentricities and angle deviations, welding method, local
 S. Valsgrd et al. / Marine Structures 23 (2010) 209225 215

imperfections from welding, residual stresses after welding, type of loading and mean stress used in
testing. If the stresses at the hot spots are properly measured during fatigue testing, it is possible to
remove the scatter due to the fabrication tolerances in the test specimens. The remaining scatter may
be dened as being part of the SN data.
A standard deviation in SN data (in log N) equal 0.20 is considered to be rather large for simple butt
welds as considered here while it can be larger for more complex structural details. This is a typical value
representative for the SN curves for butt welds in DNV-RP-C203 [3] and IIW [10]. Therefore, it is said
that this scatter represents more than that of the SN data alone in the way they have been derived. The
same may also be said about scatter in the SN data for pipes that this includes scatter due to local
bending resulting from out-of-roundness. The stress in the SN curve is dependent on how the stress
range is measured during testing. Is it based on measurement of internal pressure only or is it measured
by strain gages close to the longitudinal weld?
Assuming that a standard deviation equal to 0.20 accounts for scatter in SN data plus scatter in test
data resulting from local bending one may separate the two by saying that dOOR 10 mm corresponds
to 2.5% of being exceeded. dOOR may be assumed normal distributed. Then a revised standard deviation
representative for the SN data only can be calculated. Results for different tolerances and different
standard deviations are shown in Fig. 5. This gure may be used to read out separated standard
deviation. A total standard deviation equal 0.18 is assumed. Then for enhanced control of dOOR 10 mm
a standard deviation equal 0.16 is derived for the SN data in Fig. 5.
It is important that the test data are representative for the actual production weld. Normally fatigue
cracking in small scale test specimens will occur from weld toes and not from internal defects. Then it
becomes essential to achieve the same quality also of the kilometres of longitudinal welds that are
being made during pipe production. This puts certain requirements to quality control, non destructive
examination and acceptance criteria. Large internal defects can be detrimental for the fatigue capacity
of butt welds as was shown by Wstberg and Salama [11].

3.3. Design methodology and basic assumptions for analyses

For assessments of sensitivity and signicance of different parameters a realistic design case of long
pipes has been considered. The following different parameters are used.

0.25
Due to tolerance 10 mm
Seperate standard deviation in S-N data

S-N data for tolerance 10 mm

Due to tolerance 15 mm
0.20
S-N data for tolerance 15 mm

0.15

0.10

0.05

0.00
0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25
Total standard deviation

Fig. 5. Relation between separate standard deviations for tolerances and SN data.
216 S. Valsgrd et al. / Marine Structures 23 (2010) 209225

- Assume SN data derived from fatigue of ring tests where the hot spot stress is measured by strain
gages. Assume width of test specimens w 120 mm.
- Assume length of each cylinder equal lweld 36 m welded together from 2 pipe sections.
- Number of specimens in each cylinder lweld/lref 36,000/120 300.
- Pipe geometry: B 4200 and t 32 mm.
- Youngs modulus: E 2.1 105 N/mm2.
- Assume n 2000 design cycles from lling and emptying of the pipes.

The number of load cycles to be used for design is number of cycles expected during design life
multiplied by a Design Fatigue Factor (DFF) in order to achieve an appropriate safety level. In the
following it is assumed that the main contribution to the loading is from lling and emptying of the
pipes. A larger DFF may be required to achieve sufcient reliability in case of loading with larger
uncertainty.

- Internal pressure range Dp. This gives Dsm Dp/(rmt) and Dsb f (dOOR, Dsm)
- Assume the loading is normal distributed with CoV 0.05 as base case.
- Consider fabrication tolerance corresponding to enhanced control: dOOR dmax
dmin 10 mm.
- Assume that this tolerance corresponds to 2.5% of being exceeded.

The tolerances are in the following assumed to be normal distributed for the following example
analysis. However, the actual distribution will likely be dependent on how the pipes are being fabricated.

3.4. Effect of correlation

The effect of correlation with respect to loading or internal pressure is shown in Fig. 6 for 100
cylinders as an example. A loading with CoV 0.05 is used. A standard deviation in the SN curve equal
to 0.15 is used for the present analyses. Design SN curve is established as mean minus 2 standard
deviations. The uncertainty in loading is small compared with that of the SN data. Therefore, the effect
of correlation is not very signicant for the present assessment as long as the SN data are assumed not
to be correlated.

3.5. Derivation of design SN curves from fatigue tests

The SN curves to be used for the cargo tank cylinder shall be applicable for the material, the
construction detail and the state of stress in question. Representative design SN curves can be found in
DNV-RP-C203 Fatigue Design of Offshore Steel Structures. These design curves are derived as mean
minus two standard deviations as obtained from a log10S-log10N plot of experimental data assuming
the data (i.e. log10 N for given stress level) to follow a Gaussian distribution. This corresponds to 97.7%
probability of survival.
The uncertainty in fatigue test data shall be accounted for when a limited number of tests is per-
formed to establish design SN curves. It is in general required that the characteristic curve is estimated
with at least 75% condence [10]. However, for CNG cylinder design the characteristic curve is esti-
mated with 95% condence. When a total of n observations of the number of cycles to failure N are
available from n fatigue tests carried out at the same representative stress range S, then the charac-
teristic value of log10 N can be taken as:

log a log a
cslog N (8)

where log a is the mean value of the n observed values of log N, slogN is the the standard deviation of the
N observed values of log N.
The factor c depends on number of fatigue test data and is shown in Fig. 7 for the case where the
standard deviation is known and also when it is unknown. Reference may also be made to EN 1990
[12] and ISO 12107 [13]. However, these documents do not provide values for the probability of survival
used in this paper. It is observed that with 2030 test specimens the number of standard deviations for
 S. Valsgrd et al. / Marine Structures 23 (2010) 209225 217

Fig. 6. Effect of correlation in pressure on total probability of fatigue failure for 100 cylinders each 36 m long.

c in Eq. (8) is in the range 2.22.9. One may question if the standard deviation is known or
unknown. If it is dened as known, the testing is mainly performed for derivation of a mean value
from which a characteristic value can be derived. Provided that the fatigue test data does not show any
sign of strange results, it is likely that the answer is close to that of known condition when taking
earlier experience from fatigue testing of similar connections into consideration. However, it is obvi-
ously safer to treat the test data as unknown.

10

9
Known
Number of standard deviations c

8
Unknown
7

0
0 20 40 60 80 100
Number of fatigue tests

Fig. 7. Number of standard deviations for derivation of characteristic design SN curves corresponding to 97.7% probability of
survival.
218 S. Valsgrd et al. / Marine Structures 23 (2010) 209225

Similar considerations may be made for derivation of test data for mean minus three standard
deviations as obtained from a plot of experimental data assuming the data to follow a Gaussian
distribution in a logarithmic format. This corresponds to 99.87% probability of survival.

3.6. System effect

The system effect in terms of probability is derived from minima distributions considering welds in
one cylinder of assumed length equal 36 m. Then the system effect for a number of cylinders is derived
from assumption of a series system

psnc 1
1
p1c n (9)

Fig. 8 is derived for CoV 0.05 on loading and standard deviation 0.15 inherently in the SN curve. It
is also based on tolerance Enhanced control with maximum tolerance dOOR 10 mm. The tolerances
are assumed not accounted for in design analysis. The design is assumed performed according to the
CNG rules of today with design SN curve as mean minus 3 standard deviations and the length effect is
included simply as a system effect according to Eq. (9). Full correlation of internal pressure within each
cylinder L 36 m is assumed. The use of Eq. (9) implies no correlation of internal pressure (or SN data)
between the cylinders.
Based on these results it is likely that a safety level in terms of accumulated probability of a fatigue
failure is less than 10
5 during design life for pipes that can be stored on board one vessel when
assuming a Design Fatigue Factor equal 10, by using enhanced control on pipe tolerances and a good
control on internal pressure in the pipes. This is the design procedure used by the CNG rules today.
Use of a DFF 10 for structural components, where a fatigue failure at a single hot spot may have
signicant consequences, has a long tradition in the offshore industry. Reference is for example made
to the DNV Rules for xed offshore structures from 1977 [14]. However, when considering design of
very long pipes subjected to the same stress range along the weld toes, it is seen from Fig. 8 that the
length effect is a key parameter governing failure probability in addition to the DFF. Thus, alternative
formulations should be provided in design codes for these elements such that a more uniform safety
level can be achieved for different weld lengths.

Fig. 8. Accumulated probability of failure during lifetime as function of DFF using mean minus 3 standard deviation SN curves with
st. dev. 0.15.
 S. Valsgrd et al. / Marine Structures 23 (2010) 209225 219

3.7. Assessment of length effect

It is observed from Fig. 4 that the standard deviation in fatigue test data is obviously a parameter to
consider in addition to the weld length. Thus Eq. (6) is adjusted to account for standard deviations
other than that inherent the DNV-RP-C203 [3]. This results in the following formulation for the
characteristic fatigue number of cycles:
!k !
t
log Nc loga
cslogN
mlog Ds (10)
tref

c c3 nt : for alternative 1 as described below (10a)

!
1 l
c c2 nt log weld ns : for alternatives 2 and 3 as described below (10b)
2 lref

where lweld is the length of weld subjected to the same stress range (typical length of one cylinder); lref
is the reference weld length with similar weld quality and fatigue strength as the tested specimen. lref is
0.12 m may be used if not otherwise documented by fatigue testing. ns is the number of similar
connections subjected to the same stress range (typical number of cylinders). m is the negative inverse
slope of the SN curve. Ds is the stress range. t is the actual thickness. tref is the reference thickness, see
DNV-RP-C203. k is the thickness exponent, see DNV-RP-C203.
The c-value can be considered as an equivalent number of standard deviations accounting for the
number of test samples and the weld length (system) effect. Table 1 lists the applicable cj(nt) values for
alternative 1, c3(nt), and alternatives 2 and 3, c2(nt) depending on the number of test samples used for
determining the SN curve.
Fig. 9 gives an illustration of the equivalent c-factors in Eq. (10a, b) determined for 30 coupon test
samples.
In the following a DFF is calculated that gives a similar safety level in three alternative approaches:

1. Use of DNV CNG rules with DFF 10 with design SN curve established as mean minus 3 standard
deviations, Eq. (10a). The pipes are assumed to be fabricated with enhanced tolerance control.
Otherwise the out-of-roundness is not specically considered in design. The weld length is not
assumed accounted for in the design analysis (the safety level is calibrated for a long weld).

Table 1
Coefcient c(n) for estimation of characteristic values with condence 95%.

Number of tests, nt c2(nt) survival prob. 97.725% c3(nt) survival prob. 99.865%
2 32.2 46.0
3 9.24 13.7
5 5.01 7.29
7 4.09 5.96
10 3.45 5.05
12 3.26 4.72
15 3.07 4.45
20 2.88 4.19
25 2.75 4.00
30 2.65 3.91
50 2.48 3.66
100 2.32 3.44
N 2.00 3.00
220 S. Valsgrd et al. / Marine Structures 23 (2010) 209225

Fig. 9. Equivalent number of standard deviations as determined from 30 coupon test samples.

2. Use of Eq. (10b) for length effect with design SN curve established as mean minus 2 standard
deviations. The pipes are assumed to be fabricated with enhanced tolerance control. Otherwise the
out-of-roundness is not specically considered in design.
3. Use of Eq. (10b) for length effect with design SN curve established as mean minus 2 standard
deviations. It is assumed that the out-of-roundness is specically considered in design. This does
not necessarily require enhanced control in pipe fabrication as the actual out-of-roundness is
assumed to be accounted for in design.

The assessment of these different approaches is based on assumption of the same mean value and
that the standard deviation in the SN data is also the same and equal to 0.15. It is assumed that the
loading is normal distributed with CoV 0.05. A fabrication tolerance corresponding to enhanced
control: dOOR dmax
dmin 10 mm is assumed. It is further assumed that this tolerance corresponds
to 2.5% of being exceeded.
The assessments has been performed for the same number of design cycles in the alternative
approaches (N 2000). The results from the probabilistic analyses are shown in Fig. 10 for 1000
cylinders and 10,000 cylinders. Each cylinder is 36 m long. It is observed that the calculated probability
of failure for alternatives 2 and 3 are not signicantly dependent on number of cylinders as might be
expected as the weld length is made a parameter in the design procedure. Alternative 1 does not
include a weld length parameter and the calculated probability of a fatigue failure increases as the weld
length or number of cylinders increases.
Fig. 11 shows a comparative plot of calculated fatigue design life (nd) versus weld length for Alt. 1
and Alt. 2. The fatigue design lives are based on SN curves calibrated from 30 coupon tests cut across
the long seam weld of the full scale pipe production. The reference length (lref) is set to 0.12 m. The plot
highlights a very important question. The present CNG rules [4] is using the mean minus 3 standard
deviation approach calibrated for a very long pipe with a DFF 10. This is the same method that is
denoted Alternative 1 in this paper. The new proposed formulation (Alt. 2) is using DFF 5 and gives
a longer design life in the actual design range of weld lengths for CNG ships (104106 m). By only
referring to Fig. 11, Alt. 2 may appear to be the less safe alternative. Or, on the other hand, is the Alt. 1
approach unnecessarily conservative? The answer to this question can be found in Fig. 10.
The system target safety level in the CNG is a maximum annual probability of failure of 10
5, [4].
Fig. 10 is presented in terms of accumulated probability of failure. The calculated annual probability of
failure is lower than the accumulated probability of failure by an order of magnitude. This means that
the annual probability of failure shown in Fig. 10 for all alternatives is lower than 10
6.
Based on the above results the apparent non-conservatisms of Alt. 2 in Fig. 11 as compared to Alt. 1
can be seen from Fig. 10 to be meeting the annual target system safety level of 10
5 required by the CNG
 S. Valsgrd et al. / Marine Structures 23 (2010) 209225 221

Fig. 10. Calculated probability of failure for different procedures for 1000 and 10000 cylinders of length 36 m.

rules. Hence, Alt. 1 appears to be very much on the safe side whereas Alt. 2 provides for a more balanced
safety level across the whole range of weld lengths to be used in CNG carriers.
From Fig. 10 it is also observed that sufcient safety is achieved for Alt. 3. This alternative implies use
of DFF 3 together with SN curves established as mean minus 2 standard deviations in a logarithmic
format when out-of-roundness is specically considered in design. The weld length is assumed
accounted for according to equation (10b).
It is assumed that the main contribution to the loading is due to lling and emptying of the pipes.
A higher DFF may be required to achieve a similar reliability in case of loading with a larger uncertainty
such as loads resulting from ship movements in transport of compressed gas.
The fatigue damage effects from lling and emptying of the pipes and the damage contribution from
support stresses originating from the accelerations the ship in the seaway can in general be combined
as given in Appendix D in DNV-RP-C203.
The contribution from sea load effects is further discussed in section 3.8.

Fig. 11. Calculated design fatigue life (nd cycles) by SN curves based on 30 coupon tests.
222 S. Valsgrd et al. / Marine Structures 23 (2010) 209225

Fig. 12. Simulated accumulated probability of fatigue failure (DFF 1) after 40 years of operation as function of calculated fatigue
life.

3.8. Uncertainties in fatigue predictions from wave loads

Fig. 12 shows results from a simulation of the probability of fatigue failure of ship structural
components subjected to wave loads. An SN curve based mean value minus two standard deviations
of the test data has been used. The standard deviation of log N is 0.15. Uncertainty in the Miner sum
calculation is accounted for by a lognormal distribution with a median of 1.0 and assuming a CoV 0.3
for the fatigue damage. A Miner sum equal 1.0 is assumed for design. Further, a lognormal distribution
is also used for the stress response calculation with a standard deviation of 0.14 and no bias in the
calculated stresses. This corresponds to the use of state-of-the-art spectral fatigue analysis procedures.
The results in Fig. 12 show that for a target design lifetime of 40 years the accumulated probability of
having experienced fatigue cracking when the ship has reached 40 years of age is about 18%. This
includes the uncertainties in the wave environment, the wave load and stress response calculation as
well as the uncertainty in the applied SN curve. However, if the calculated fatigue life is 80 years

Fig. 13. Fatigue failure of long seam weld in prototype test cylinder, Ref. [15].
 S. Valsgrd et al. / Marine Structures 23 (2010) 209225 223

Fig. 14. Comparison with prototype test lweld/lref 44 ns 1.

(DFF 2), the probability of fatigue cracking in the same period is down to some 2% which is of the
same order of magnitude as in an SN curve based on minus two standard deviations. Further, for
a calculated fatigue life of 200 years (DFF 5) the accumulated probability of failure is in the order of
2  10
4. This means that the annual probability of fatigue cracking is on target or below (10
5).
These results serve to indicate that when using a fatigue design factor (DFF) of 5 or higher with SN
curves based on mean minus two standard deviations of the test data the probability of fatigue failure
due to sea loads will be of the same low order of magnitude as for the low cycle pressure loads due to
lling and emptying of the containment cylinders.
This section is mainly included for illustration and comparison of safety level of details in the ship
with respect to the fatigue failure mode. The design of the CNG cylinders is in most cases performed in
such a way that the longitudinal welds will not be subjected to signicant environmental loading. Thus
an interaction from environmental response with stress ranges from lling and emptying of the pipes
need normally not be considered for design of the longitudinal welds.

4. Comparison with full scale prototype test

A 6 m long end-capped prototype test cylinder with wall thickness t 33.5 mm was tested by
Europipe [15]. Failure in the midst of the weld deposit of the long seam weld was experienced after
n  40,000 cycles, Fig. 13. The failure occurred after several months of pressure testing with water and
was initiated by a corrosion pit on the inside of the weld. However, with dry gas inside the cylinder the
fatigue life will be expected to be higher than 40,000 cycles.
The DNV rule requirement to prototype fatigue testing is testing of a full size end-capped cylinder to
15  number of design life cycles that for a 40 year design life is equal to 50  40  15 30,000 cycles
[4]. Hence, having achieved more than the rule requirement, the testing was stopped.
A comparison with Alternative 2 (Alt. 2) using an SN curve derived from ring tests samples with
width lref 0.15 m gave the results shown in Fig. 14. The comparison clearly shows the advantage of
testing a reasonable amount of samples in order to improve the fatigue lifetime predictions. A number
of test samples (nt) in the order of 30 seem to be a reasonable choice.
Fig. 14 shows results for three sets of standard deviations (0.10, 0.15 and 0.20) in the fatigue SN
curve denoted Alt 2 (st.dev.) on the plot. Depending on the standard deviation used in the calculations,
the results indicate characteristic fatigue lives due to lling/emptying of the pipe from 20,000 to
40,000 cycles when using about 30 test samples (nt) to determine the SN curve. The actual prototype
test experienced more than 40,000 cycles despite the corrosion pit deciency. This indicates that the
Alt. 2 approach is on the safe side.
224 S. Valsgrd et al. / Marine Structures 23 (2010) 209225

5. Summary and conclusions

Fatigue assessment is a key issue in design of cargo tank cylinders to be used for transportation of
compressed natural gas. The steel weight of the cylinders is sought reduced by using high strength
steels. This leads to larger stress ranges in the cylinders and hence increased calculated fatigue damage.
In this paper the most signicant physical mechanisms associated with dynamic loading and fatigue
capacity of the cylinders are discussed. This includes effect of fabrication tolerances and long weld
lengths in pipe fabrication used for construction of the cylinders. It is shown that there are a number of
different ways to formulate a design procedure that may lead to designs with an acceptable safety.
However, it is important that all required parameters in the design procedure are well dened and that
nally a calibration of each procedure is made based on the actual safety format and appropriate
denitions of the parameters involved. Thus different safety formats or different denition of the
parameters involved in the actual design procedure will also lead to different requirements to Design
Fatigue Factors (DFFs).
There has been a tradition in the offshore industry to use a Design Fatigue Factor equal 10 where
a fatigue failure may have signicant consequences. This is also used as an alternative in design of
CNG cylinders in the DNV rules (Alt. 1) [4]. Here a mean minus 3 standard deviation SN curve is
used. This corresponds to a characteristic design SN curve at 99.87% probability of survival. This
design procedure applies to a very long weld and appears for CNG ship application to be rather
conservative.
An alternative safety format (Alt. 2) using a mean minus 2 standard deviation SN curve together
with a DFF 5 and accounting explicitly for the weld length effect is proposed. This is considered to be
a more balanced approach giving a more uniform safety level across the whole weld length range
applicable for CNG ships.
Based on the work carried out the following recommendations can be made for the alternative
approaches:

1. A DFF 10 can be used together with SN curves established as mean minus 3 standard deviations
in a logarithmic format for pipes fabricated with enhanced tolerance control. Otherwise the out-of-
roundness is not specically considered in design. The weld length is not assumed accounted for in
the design analysis.
2. A DFF 5 can be used together with SN curves established as mean minus 2 standard deviations
in a logarithmic format for pipes fabricated with enhanced control. Otherwise the out-of-round-
ness is not specically considered in design. The weld length is assumed accounted for according to
Eq. (10b).
3. A DFF 3 can be used together with SN curves established as mean minus 2 standard deviations
in a logarithmic format when out-of-roundness is specically considered in design. This does not
necessarily require enhanced control in pipe fabrication as the actual out-of-roundness is
assumed to be accounted for in design. The weld length is assumed accounted for according to
Eq. (10b).

Acknowledgement

The authors wish to thank Det Norske Veritas for having provided funding for the present work.
Thanks also to Dr. Oskar Reepmeyer of Europipe GmbH and Mr. Per Lothe of Knutsen O.A.S. Shipping A/S
for providing test data for use in the calibration studies.

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 S. Valsgrd et al. / Marine Structures 23 (2010) 209225 225

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