J. Construct.

Steel Research 14 (1989) 167-180

Design and Analysis of Offshore Lifting Padeyes

A i - K a h Soh a & C h e e - K i o n g Soh b
aSchoolof Mechanical& ProductionEngineering,bSchoolof Civil& Structural
Engineering,NanyangTechnologicalInstitute, NanyangAvenue, Singapore2263
(Received16March 1989;revisedversionreceived21 June 1989;
accepted 13July 1989)

ABSTRACT
It has been a common industrial practice to design lifting padeyes for
offshore structures based on some conservative assumptions and formulae
in order to reduce design time and cost. Thus most of the padeyes are
over-designed and therefore more costly to fabricate. The finite element
technique has been employed to study some two-dimensional padeye
models. The results obtained are compared with a three-dimensional finite
element solution to enable the selection of a two-dimensional model which
can best be used for practical designs.

NOTATION
Cross-sectional area
Depth of a ring
Young's modulus
Shape factor for a cross-section
Shear force in x' direction
Fx,
Shear modulus of elasticity
G
Area moment of inertia of ring cross-section
I
A
r e a moment of inertia of the projected area of a padeye
Ip
Spring stiffness
K
Load component applied at a padeye
P
q,q'
Uniformly distributed loads
Uniformly distributed loads due to bending and tension respecqb, qt
tively
167
J. Construct. Steel Research 0143-974X/90/$03.50 ~ 1990 ElsevierSciencePublishersLtd,
England. Printed in Great Britain

A
d
E
F

168

a
R
t

tf
tw

Ai-Kah Soh, Chee-Kiong Soh

Point load applied at a padeye

Nominal radius of a ring
Thickness of a ring
Thickness of a flange plate
Thickness of a web plate

Inclination angle of the external load applied at a padeye

Displacement of the centroid of a segment of ring
AH, A V Changes in the horizontal and vertical diameters, respectively, of
a ring
x and y nodal displacement components respectively
0
Half of the angle subtended by flange plate
o/

INTRODUCTION
A particular characteristic of offshore structures is that, unlike onshore
structures, they cannot be constructed at their final locations. In fact, they
must be built onshore, loaded out, transported to their actual sites,
launched/lifted and installed. The dead loads of offshore structures are
normally in the region of hundreds to thousands of tons. In most
circumstances, these structures can be moved from one location to another
only by cranes with the aid of slings and shackles which are attached to a
number of padeyes built on the structure. Figure I shows a typical padeye
employed for lifting of offshore structures.
The design of this type of padeye is normally based on some simplified
two-dimensional models. Most designers have employed a ring subjected
to a point load or a uniformly distributed load to simulate a padeye under

IHI
~~8-plate i

Fig. 1. A typical lifting padeye.

Fig. 2. Two commonly used two-dimensional models.

Design and analysis of offshore lifting padeyes

169

lliag
Stiff mr

-t-Fig. 3. A padeye with two ring stiffeners.

loading, as shown in Fig. 2. Note that this ring was assumed to be

supported by tangential shear at the bottom. The idealised structure was
then analysed using the formulae given by Roark & Young.1 It was found
that the maximum stresses obtained by this design approach were always
very high. As a result, two ring stiffeners were often required to strengthen
the padeye instead of two flange plates, as shown in Fig. 3.
A multinational offshore company criticised this approach for being too
conservative. They proposed a modified approach for padeye analysis in
which the uniformly distributed load acting on the lower flange plate, i.e.
qt + qb as shown in Fig. 4a, was imposed on the ring, which was used to
simulate a section of pipe, as shown in Fig. 4b. This assumption was made
because the connection between the padeye and pipe was subjected to
both tension and bending with the maximum combined stress occurring at
the lower flange. The uniformly distributed load (q') is given by 2
q' = qt + qb

(1)

where

Qtf cos
qt = (4Rtf sin 0 + htw)

(2)

and

qb =

Qa(h + tf) tf sin a

21p

(3)

in which Ip = Area moment of inertia of the projected area of the padeye.

However, this modified approach was not well received by most of the
certification companies because of the lack of technical literature for
padeye designs to support it.

170

Ai-Kah Soh, Chee-Kiong Soh

t + qb
Fig. 4a Stress distributions at padeyepipe interface.

Fig. 4b. Two-dimensional model with

uniformly distributed load calculated
from tension and bending.

In this paper, various two-dimensional models are studied and the

results obtained are compared with a three-dimensional finite element
solution to determine whether a two-dimensional solution is adequate for
padeye design, and if so which is the most acceptable two-dimensional
approach. Note that all the two- and three-dimensional finite element
analyses were performed using a well-established finite element software
package called P A F E C 3 which runs on a VAX8800.

ANALYSIS
Simplification of padeye design

A simple two-dimensional model, which consisted of a ring supported by

springs and subjected to a point load, was devised to simulate a padeye
under loading, as shown in Fig. 5. Because of symmetry, only half of this
structure needs to be modelled for finite element analysis, as shown in Fig.
6. A total of 18 curved beam elements, 4 P A F E C element type 34300 which
consists of two end nodes with six degrees of freedom at each node, and 17
spring elements, P A F E C element type 30100, were employed in this
model. The total n u m b e r of nodal points used was 19. Note that the spring
elements were used to simulate the interaction between a section of pipe
and the neighbouring structure. This simulation m e t h o d has to be proven
reliable and accurate before it can be used in the analysis of complicated
two-dimensional models.

Design and analysis of offshore lifting padeyes

171

Fig. 5. Two-dimensional model with springs used to create shear.

Consider a ring of nominal radius R and thickness t subjected to a point
load P, as shown in Fig. 7. Let l be the length of segment abcd. Therefore,
l = 2~'R/n, where n is the n u m b e r of segments into which the ring is
divided. The shear force acting on this segment is
P/
Fx, = ~ sin/3

(4)

A spring can be used to create this shear force. The stiffness of the spring is
given by
K = P/sin____~fl
rRA

(5)

where A is the displacement of the centroid of segment abcd.

It is obvious that the stiffness of all the springs used in the finite element
model cannot be determined because nodal displacements are unknown.
However, these spring constants can be estimated as follows.
(a) Assume that nodal displacement is given by,
A = ~/(Ax) 2 + (Ay)2

(6)

172

Ai-Kah Soh, Chee-Kiong Soh

Ill

Fig. 6. Two-dimensionalfinite element model with point ioad applied.

where Ax and Ay are the x and y nodal displacement components,

and AH and Av are the changes in the horizontal and vertical
diameters of the ring respectively. Note that An and Av are given
by 1
PR 3 ~ k,
AH = ~ \ ~
-

1.)

(7)

and
Av=

El\

(8)

Design and analysis o f offshore lifting padeyes

173

!1

Fig. 7. A ring subjected to a point load and supported by shear.

where
kl = 1 + I / A R 2 - F E I / G A R 2

(9)

and
kE = 1 + I / A R E + F E I / G A R E

(10)

in which
E
I
A
R
F
G

=
=
=
=
=
=

Young's modulus;
area moment of inertia of ring cross-section;
cross-sectional area;
nominal radius of the ring;
shape factor for the cross-section;
shear modulus of elasticity.

N o t e that the depth of the cross-section is the thickness of the ring of

38.1 m m and the width is given by R o a r k & Y o u n g 1 as
d = 1.56M~--

(11)

(b) A s s u m e that A is a constant and it is of the same o r d e r of magnitude

as Av.
Figure 8 shows the m o m e n t distributions along the circumference
of the ring obtained from R o a r k ' s formula and the finite element

Ai-Kah Soh, Chee-Kiong Soh

174

I ~o

" 1o

I
1

1.o2.03 . 0 ~ 0

P = 200
R = 0.438 m

14o I~o I~o 17o 1~o

.v.G.

-10-

-20

-30

Fig. 8. Moment distributions along the circumference of the ring obtained from the Roark
and finite element solutions. Roark's solution ( - - - ) . Solution obtained using the first
proposed method to estimate spring constants (
). Solutionsobtained using the second
proposed method to estimate spring constants (A, Q, ) where A is for A = 0.0015 m, O
is for A = 0.0025 m and is for A = 0.0075m.

model with different estimations of spring stiffnesses. It is obvious

that all the finite e l e m e n t solutions are in good agreement with each
other. All the m a x i m u m and m i n i m u m m o m e n t s occur at/3 = 75
and /3 = 0 respectively. Moreover, the m a x i m u m discrepancy
b e t w e e n the m i n i m u m bending m o m e n t s occurred at/3 = 0 and is
only 13.2%. The m o m e n t distribution obtained from R o a r k ' s
formula agrees well with all the finite element results. The
m a x i m u m and m i n i m u m m o m e n t s of R o a r k ' s solution also occur at
/3 = 75 and/3 = 0 respectively. It is worth noting that this solution
is particularly close to the finite element solution obtained using the
first m e t h o d to estimate spring stiffnesses. The discrepancy between
their m i n i m u m bending m o m e n t s is only 7.8%. Thus, the first
m e t h o d was e m p l o y e d to estimate spring stiffnesses for twodimensional finite e l e m e n t modellings.

Design and analysis of offshore lifting padeyes

175

Two-dimensional finite e l e m e n t m o d e l
Three two-dimensional models were devised, as shown in Fig. 9, for finite
element analyses. The first model consisted of half a ring of curved beams
supported by springs and subjected to a uniformly distributed load, which
was calculated based on the assumption that the load component
perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the pipe was uniformly distributed over a sector of the ring of the same angle as that subtended by the
flange plate. Note that the flange plates of the padeye were ignored in this
model. A total of 36 curved beam elements and 35 spring elements were

(n)

(B)

(c)

Fig. 9. Two-dimensionalfinite element models.

employed in this model. The second model was exactly the same as the
first, except that the uniformly distributed load was calculated using
eqns (1)-(3). The third model consisted of half a flange plate and ring
supported by springs. Sixteen eight-noded isoparametric curvilinear
quadrilateral elements, 5 P A F E C element type 36210, were used to model
the half flange plate. This type of element can only perform plane stress
analysis. It consists of four corner and four mid-side nodes with two
degrees of freedom at each node. The four sides of this element can be
curved and isoparametric formulation is employed for the element. A
point load was applied to the third model instead of a uniformly distributed
load as for the first two models. Note that the angle subtended by the
flange plate was set to 80 in these three models.

176

Ai-Kah Soh, Chee-Kiong Soh

Fig. 10. The mesh of the three-dimensional finite element model of padeye.

Three-dimensional finite element model

Figure 10 shows the mesh generated for the three-dimensional finite

element analysis. It consisted of 250 semi-loof curved shell elements, 6
P A F E C element type 43210, which can be used for any generally curved
and folded shell problems. This type of element can carry bending and
m e m b r a n e loads but it does not account for shear deflection. Therefore,
the shell should be thin. However, the element may be degenerated to a
flat plate which is useful for the modelling of flange and web plates. This
type of element has 43 degrees of freedom which are reduced to 32 (i.e.
three translatory freedom at each of the eight nodes and one rotational
freedom at each of the eight points referred to as Loof nodes) for merging
by applying constraints on the motion.
Too & Wong 7 have carried out a patch test 8 to ascertain the reliability
and accuracy of this type of element for an abrupt change of geometry,
such as 90 angles at the flange plate and pipe intersection. The results
obtained were in good agreement with those obtained by the strain
gauging technique.
The three-dimensional model was clamped at z = 1369 m m to simulate

Design and analysis of offshore lifting pad.eyes

177

the constraints imposed on the pipe by the connecting members. Note that
the plane z = 1369 mm was chosen in such a manner that further increase
in pipe length would not change the hoop stress distribution around the
padeye significantly. All the nodal points lying in the x z plane were
constrained in such a manner that consistencyof deformation would not be
violated if the structure were subjected to external loadings. The external
load was applied as pressure loading at the circumference of the hole of the
padeye.

DISCUSSION OF RESULTS
Figure 11 shows the moment distributions along the circumference of the
ring obtained from the three two-dimensional finite element models
described earlier. It is important to note that the moment distribution
obtained from the second model varied with the inclination angle a of the
external load applied at the padeye. However, the most critical moment
distribution occurred at a = 50 . Therefore, this moment distribution is
shown in Fig. 11 for comparison with the moment distributions obtained
from the other two models. The moment distributions obtained from the
first two models have the same shape and the moment ratio between the
first and second models is always 1.47. These two moment distributions
agree with that obtained from the third model in terms of shape except for
the region between/3 = 0 and 60 which is due to the fact that the latter
has a flange plate. The minimum moments are -15.2, - 1 0 . 3 and
q ' = q t + qb

i 20

iP/2

b=017B

q = 654.1 kN/m
R=0.438 m

-1C

40"

R 40"

R 40

\(i)

2~0

Fig. 11. Comparisonof the momentdistributionsobtained from the three two-dimensional

finite element models.

Ai-Kah Soh, Chee-Kiong Sob

178

Q = 8223 kN

1.0,

c~ = 5 0 1
~

%\%

0.8-

=
~
N

0.6-

,4

0.4-

0.2.

[]

0.2

0.4

~.

OJ5

08

[~I0

- J _ ~

"~2~

1.4

z (m)

-0.2.

xi

-0.4.
o

-0.8-

-0.8-1,0-

Fig. 12. Hoop stress distributions in the vicinity of the padeye (outer surface)./3 = 0 ( - ) ,
3 (O), 9 (O), 22.5 ( A ) , 36.5 (rq), 51.7 ( - - - ) .

~,o
~'

V:

/'"

o\
.

oX

!%

Fig. 13. Hoop stress distributions in the vicinity of the padeye (inner surface), p = 0 ( - ) ,
3 (), 9 (O), 22.5 ( A ) , 36.5 (D), 51-7 ( - - - ) .

Design and analysis of offshore lifting padeyes

179

- 1 0 . 2 kN m which occur at ~ = 0 , 0 and 40 for the first, second and

third models respectively. It is obvious that these three models give much
lower bending moments as compared with the case in which a point load is
applied, as shown in Fig. 8.
Figures 12 and 13 show the hoop stress distributions in the vicinity of the
padeye for the outer and inner surfaces respectively, obtained from the
three-dimensional finite element analysis. The maximum hoop stress is
128.1 MN/m 2 which occurs at z = 0.4 m and fl = 0 on the inner surface,
whereas the minimum stress is - 8 2 . 8 MN/m 2 which occurs at z = 0.48 m
and /3 = 0 on the outer surface. This shows that the first two twodimensional models do give the same fl angle at which the maximum and
minimum stresses occur, but the third model does not.
The maximum and minimum hoop stresses obtained from the two- and
three-dimensional finite element models are shown in Table 1 for
comparison. The stresses for two-dimensional models were calculated
based on basic curved beam theory. Note that the stresses shown in Table 1
are the combined (axial and bending) stresses. The depth of the
cross-section used for two-dimensional stress calculations was the thickness of the ring and the width was given by eqn (11). It is obvious that the
designs based on two-dimensional models are very conservative. However, the third model can be improved to provide a better design by scaling
down the point load to account for the effects of bending and tension. In
other words, the ratio of q'/q (=0.68) should be multiplied to the point
load of the third model. The moment distribution of this modified model
can be obtained from that of the third model by multiplying it by a ratio of
q'/q. Thus, the maximum and minimum hoop stresses of this modified
model are 138.3 and - 146.5 MN/m 2 respectively, which are much closer to
those of the three-dimensional solution. However, detailed studies are
required before this modified model can be put into practical use.

TABLE 1
Comparison of Maximum and Minimum Stresses Between Two- and Three-Dimensional
Models

Two-dimensional solutions

Maximum stress (MN/m 2)

Minimum stress (MN/m 2)

First
model

Second
model

Third
model

303-0
-321.1

205-3
-217.6

203-3
-215.4

Three-dimensional
solution

128.1
-82.8

180

Ai-Kah Soh, Chee-Kiong Soh

CONCLUSION
The three two-dimensional models proposed can safely be used for design
of lifting padeyes. The second model appears to be the best compared with
the other two because it is easy to set up and analyse and it provides
reasonably good results. However, this design is still too conservative. A
promising solution to this problem is to modify the third model by scaling
down the point load by a factor of q'/q. This possible solution should be
studied in detail before it can be put into practical use.

REFERENCES
1. Roark, R. J. & Young, W. C., Curved beams. In Formulas for Stress and
Strain, 5th edn. McGraw-Hill, Singapore, 1976, pp. 209-85.
2. Lo, M. H. & Kumar, S., SC1 Deck Lifting Analysis. MEPL Project No. 15531,
McDermott Engineering Pte Ltd, Singapore.
3. PAFEC 75 Data Preparation, PAFEC Ltd, Strelley Hall, Nottingham, UK.
4. Tada, T. & Lee, G. A., Finite element solution to an elastica problem of
beams. Int. J. Num. Meth. Engng, 2 (1970) 229-41.
5. Cheung, Y. K. & Yeo, M. F., Quadratic isoparametric element for plane
elasticity. In A Practical Introduction to Finite Element Analysis, 1st edn.
Pitman, London, 1979, pp. 80-116.
6. Ahmad, S., Irons, B. M. & Zienkiewicz, O. C., Analysis of thick and thin shell
structures by curved finite elements. Int. J. Num. Meth. Engng, 2 (1970)
419-51.
7. Too, H. K. & Wong, C. F., Patch tests. In Stress Analysis of Square Tubular T
and K Joints Using Finite Element Methods. B.Eng. Project Report, Nanyang
Technological Institute, Singapore, 1986, pp. 18-25.
8. Macneal, R. H. & Harder, R. L., A proposed standard set of problems to test
finite element accuracy. Finite Elements in Analysis and Design, 1 (1985) 3-20.