Influence of end fixity on post-yield behaviors of a tubular member

For the evaluation of the capability of a tubular member of an offshore structure to absorb the collision energy, a simple method can be employed for the collision analysis without performing the detailed analysis. The most common simple method is the rigid-plastic method. However, in this method any characteristics for horizontal movement and rotation at the ends of the corresponding tubular member are not included. In a real structural system of an offshore structure, tubular members sustain a certain degree of elastic support from the adjacent structure. End fixity has influences in the behaviors of a tubular member. Three-dimensional FEM analysis can include the effect of end fixity fully, however in viewpoints of the inherent computational complexities of the 3-D approach, this is not the recommendable analysis at the initial design stage. In this paper, influence of end fixity on the behaviors of a tubular member is investigated, through a new approach and other approaches. A new analysis approach that includes the flexibility of the boundary points of the member is developed here. The flexibility at the ends of a tubular element is extracted using the rational reduction of the modeling characteristics. The property reduction is based on the static condensation of the related global stiffness matrix of a model to end nodal points of the tubular element. The load-displacement relation at the collision point of the tubular member with and without the end flexibility is obtained and compared. The new method lies between the rigid-plastic method and the 3-demensional analysis. It is self-evident that the rigid-plastic method gives high strengthening membrane effect of the member during global deformation, resulting in a steeper slope than the present method. On the while, full 3-D analysis gives less strengthening membrane effect on the member, resulting in a slow going load-displacement curve. Comparison of the load-displacement curves by the new approach with those by conventional methods gives the figures of the influence of end fixity on post-yielding behaviors of the relevant tubular member. One of the main contributions of this investigation is the development of an analytical rational procedure to figure out the post-yielding behaviors of a tubular member in offshore structures.