Tech Hydril Company

P. O. Box 60458
9803

Houston, Texas 77205-0458

Note (281) 449-2000

HYDRIL SERIES 500™ CASING

FATIGUE LIFE ESTIMATION METHOD
Oct-98

Applications of Series 500 casing include drill-down liners and casing strings for medium radius horizontal wells. High bend-
ing loads coupled with pipe rotation create fatigue loads in these strings. Fatigue damage can lead to failure in the string.
While the Series 500 casing connections provide good tension, compression, and bending strengths, the fatigue strength
of casing connections will not match the fatigue strength of the pipe body. The fatigue life of a Series 500 casing connec-
tion can be estimated after determining the cyclic bending stress in the connection that is created by rotation of the string
within a build interval. The rotation causes the stress in the connection to cycle between tension and compression and can
be calculated:

σb = ± 211 θ D / Et
where:
σb= stress in the connection created by bending in psi.
θ = the build angle in °/100'.
D = outside diameter of the pipe body in inches.
Et = tension efficiency of the connection in decimal form.

The number of cycles, or revolutions, that can safely be applied to a string subjected to this bending stress can be deter-
mined from the stress - cycles graph (S-N Design Curve). The ratio of the bending stress to the specified minimum yield
strength of the steel is first calculated. Applying a safety factor to this percentage, the maximum number of cycles can be
determined from the graph. Since fatigue damage is cumulative, limiting the duration of exposure to a fatigue environment,
on any given joint, can extend the life of a string.

Example: A string of 5" 15.00 lb/ft L-80 Type 511 casing will be rotated during cementing. The maximum build angle is
expected to be 10°/100'. The connection bending stress in the build interval is calculated to be 17400 psi (211*10*5.0/.607).
Applying a 1.5 safety factor to this stress, the resulting design stress is 33% (26100/80000) of the specified minimum yield
strength of the steel. Entering the graph at 33%, the maximum number of cycles is about 6000. This would provide 10
hours of rotation at 10 RPM.
3/8/00

S-N CURVE
Series 500 CASING
60.00
CONNECTION BENDING STRESS (% of yield)

50.00
40.00
30.00
20.00
10.00
0.00
1000 10000 100000 1000000
CYCLES
Tech 9803