Resonant test rigs for fatigue full scale testing of oil drill string connections

The paper presents two test rigs designed at the University of Pisa to perform bending fatigue tests on full scale drill pipe connections used for oil drilling. Two types of connection required different configurations of test rig. In both cases, specimen resonance was exploited in order to reduce the loads on the structure and the test duration. This allowed a cost reduction in both the experimental apparatus and tests. Results of fatigue tests are reported and discussed.