Oil and gas

Fatigue fracture, weld testing and metallurgical lab – DNV labs Singapore

Fatigue, fracture and weld testing by DNV’s independent materials and metallurgical lab and advisory center in Singapore
Fatiguing of specimen for testing in our Singapore laboratory

Contact us:

Da Qin Xu

Da Qin Xu

Head of Section

Phone: +65 6508 3766

Fatigue fracture testing for Asia Pacific region

As one of the world-class DNV laboratories, the Singapore laboratory has offered materials and structural testing and advisory services – including fatigue, fracture and weld testing – for over three decades in the Asia Pacific region, providing confidence to stakeholders of hundreds of oil and gas projects.  

The materials and metallurgical laboratory’s capability in bespoke testing and analysis are integrated with advisory solutions to help asset operators and engineering firms to address engineering criticality and fitness-for-service (FFS) challenges on structures, pipelines and other oil and gas assets with the aim to provide independent, realistic and safe solutions. Throughout the years, advanced laboratory testing and in-depth analysis techniques have been developed to meet the need of comprehensive ECA/FFS assessments and other advisory solutions.

Our laboratory services related to ECA/FFS advisory: 

  • Fatigue and fracture testing in simulated operating conditions including sour service environment with use of various specimen geometries (CT, SENB, SENT, Segment etc.)
  • Comprehensive assessment of materials/welds includes weld testing, integrity evaluation, metallurgical characterization and weldability simulation
  • Salami slicing and detail examination of weld defect for qualification of AUT system 
  • Full-scale fatigue and fracture testing of welded structure and pipe to validate the ECA/FFS assessment and FEM simulation results.

Our lab engineers and materials experts also use the state-of-the-art materials and metallurgical laboratory facility and expertise to provide customers with independent fatigue, fracture and weld testing and assessment to ensure the specific requirements of projects are met.  

Materials and Metallurgical lab services - independent third-party testing:  

  • Weld testing to qualify the welder and Welding Procedure Specification (WPS)
  • Fatigue and fracture mechanics (CTOD/SENT/SENB) testing to assess the fracture toughness and fatigue crack growth rates of structural and pipeline materials and welds
  • Corrosion testing to evaluate the resistance of Corrosion Resistance Alloys (CRA) to pitting corrosion, intergranular corrosion (IC) and stress corrosion cracking (SCC)
  • Sulphide Stress Corrosion (SSC) and Hydrogen Induced Cracking (HIC) to evaluate the susceptibility of the materials and weld to environment-assisted cracking (EC) in sour service environment
  • Autoclave testing to select and qualify the materials in HPHT condition
  • Pipeline and Field Joint Coating (FJC) tests to qualify the product and application procedure against the project specification and pre-production requirement
  • Material and weld testing for conformity check in term of mechanical property, metallurgical condition and chemical composition.

Understanding the failure cause of materials, component and structure is vital to mitigate the problem and prevent the recurrence of failure. Root Cause Analysis (RCA), encompassing laboratory examination and analysis, are usually carried out by DNV to help the industry address the issue fundamentally, so that appropriate measures can be implemented for a safe and sustainable operation. With modern materials and our metallurgical lab, we combine the global expertise of DNV to locally assist our customers in investigating the failure of materials, weld, component and/or structure. 

Services related to laboratory failure analysis and root cause analyses (RCA): 

  • On-site inspection, condition assessment, data and sample collection
  • In-situ metallurgical tests, examination and defect sizing
  • Laboratory mechanical test, metallurgical evaluation and chemical analysis
  • Detail fractographic examination and study by optical microscopy and SEM/EDX techniques
  • RCA workshop facilitation with involvement of project team and DNV GL’s subject matter experts to systematically address possible contributing factors from design, fabrication/installation to operation to enable determination of immediate and root causes
  • Material selection and corrosion assessment
  • Recommending mitigation and prevention measures
  • Weldability assessment and testing, welding procedure development
  • Pipeline and structural repair solutions and detailed terms of reference
  • Detailed 3D Non-linear Finite Element Analyses to determine environmental or thermal stresses
  • Forensic analyses and expert witness for arbitration and litigation court cases.

The unique set and broad range of capabilities of our Singapore lab enable us to serve not only the oil and gas industry but also maritime, energy, infrastructure and other general industry.  

Other services we offer: 

  • Weighing structure and module in fabrication yard upon completion for safe loadout and transportation of heavy and costly asset
  • Concrete sleeper and rail components testing and qualification
  • Proof load, pressure and torque test of component
  • Qualification test of bridge bearing
  • Calibration of load and pressure equipment - load cell, hydraulic Jack and transducer
  • On-site calibration of test bed, loading equipment and test rig
  • In-situ stress and strain gauging and measurement 
  • Noise and vibration measurement on board vessel and offshore platform
  • Qualification of Additively Manufactured (AM) product and component.

Contact us:

Da Qin Xu

Da Qin Xu

Head of Section

Phone: +65 6508 3766

More information about the Singapore laboratory

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Laboratory services and solutions offered globally

Corrosion testing

Failure analysis and failure investigation

Flow testing and flow calibration

Full-scale testing

Materials testing and qualification