LAUSR

Abstract The local joint flexibility (LJF) of two-planar tubular DK-joints in offshore jacket structures under the out-of-plane bending (OPB) loads is studied in the present paper. Altogether, 81 finite element (FE) models were generated and analyzed by ANSYS in order to investigate the effects of DK-joint's geometrical parameters on the LJF factor ( f LJF ) under four types of OPB load cases. Generated FE models were validated against the existing experimental data, FE results, and parametric equations. After the parametric study of geometrical effects, the f LJF in two-planar DK- and uniplanar K-joints were compared. Results showed that the effect of multi-planarity on the f LJF values is considerable. Hence, the application of the equations already available for uniplanar K-joints to determine the f LJF in two-planar DK-joints might result in highly under-/over-predicting outputs. To suggest a solution for this issue, results of 324 analyses carried out on generated FE models were used to develop a new set of parametric formulas for the calculation of the f LJF in OPB-loaded two-planar DK-joints. Applicability of proposed formulas was assessed based on the UK DoE acceptance criteria.