Fatigue Life Extension Procedure for Subsea Wells Based on Pressure Testing

This article presents a fatigue life extension procedure for subsea wells based on fracture mechanics. It makes use of the outcome of an internal pressure test to determine a safe period for drilling and completion. The pressure test is used as a load test and can only reveal deep fatigue cracks. The safe operational period is estimated as the number of cycles required to grow a fatigue crack from the largest fatigue crack that remains stable after the pressure test until it becomes unstable due to an accidental load. The procedure takes into account the probability of the presence of the fatigue crack that can be revealed by the pressure test. This is used to determine design fatigue factors for the procedure. The design fatigue factor is formulated in terms of the (S-N based) accumulated fatigue damage for historical operations. The procedure is illustrated with two case examples (fatigue hot spots) for illustrating the procedure in more detail: wellhead extension girth weld and wellhead profile. Conditions for use are given at the end of the article.