Patent ID: 8590641

Claim:
A method associated with the evaluation of performance limits of threaded connections, the method comprising: determining constituents of an evaluation group of threaded connections, the constituents comprising a first plurality of the threaded connections and a second plurality of the threaded connections; making up a threaded connection for each of the first plurality of threaded connections to a torque within a prescribed torque range; conducting physical testing on each constituent of the made up first plurality of the threaded connections at a plurality of load and pressure test conditions within a load and pressure test range to test connection performance of the tested constituent at each of the plurality of tested load and pressure test conditions, producing a first plurality of tested connection performance results; performing modeling analysis on each constituent of the first plurality of threaded connections at a plurality of load and pressure model conditions within the load and pressure test range to determine a modeled connection performance factor for each of the modeled plurality of load and pressure modeled conditions, producing a first plurality of modeled connection performance factors for each constituent of the first plurality of threaded connections; comparing for each constituent the first plurality of tested connection performance results and the first plurality of modeled connection performance factors to determine a characteristic performance factor limit for each constituent of the first plurality of threaded connections; comparing each of the determined characteristic performance factor limits for each constituent of the first plurality of threaded connections with each other to determine a first plurality constituent group characteristic performance factor group limit that represents a determined operational performance limit for each of the tested first plurality of threaded connection constituents; performing modeling analysis on each constituent of the second plurality of threaded connections at a plurality of load and pressure model conditions within the load and pressure test range to determine a second plurality modeled connection performance factor for each of the modeled plurality of load and pressure modeled conditions, producing a second plurality of modeled connection performance factors, for each constituent of the second plurality of threaded connections; applying the first plurality constituent group characteristic performance factor group limit to the second plurality of threaded connection constituents to define an acceptable range of performance limits for at least one of the second plurality of threaded connections.