PSI - Issue 75

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Fabrice Deleau et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 75 (2025) 392–418 Emmanuel Persent, Deleau Fabrice, Guillaume Coudouel, Guillaume Perrin/ Structural Integrity Procedia (2025)

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Fig. 2: Half connector, small sized prototype and i-Clip Riser TM product

A small-scale prototype (1:5 scale) was designed to simplify experimental investigations. Its geometry is essentially derived from the geometry of the new generation of the i-Clip-Riser TM . The prototype consists of a male flange and a female flange, which are connected to each other by two lugs. 1.1. Reduced scale prototype configuration The i-Clip prototype is a 1:5 small-scale connector, which has an axial load design of 3,500 kips (≈ 1,600 tons). The nominal load at a 1:5 scale is reduced by a factor of 5² = 25. The two rows of the four lugs have been reduced to one row of two diametrically opposed lugs, further reducing the load by a factor of 4. These simplifications result in a total load reduction by a factor of 100 on the prototype compared to the full-scale product. • Detail geometry The Fig. 3 shows a 3D illustration of the small-sized i-Clip prototype, composed of a male and a female part.

Fig. 3: Small-sized i-Clip prototype (1:5)