Ductile Fracture Resistance Measurements in High Grade Steels

Author(s):  
L. N. Pussegoda ◽  
A. Fredj ◽  
A. Fonzo ◽  
G. Demofonti ◽  
G. Mannucci ◽  
...  

Recent developments in ductile fracture resistance measures in high grade steels in the pipeline industry include the crack tip opening angle (CTOA) and “steady state” fracture propagation energy, using 3-point bend specimens. The CTOA has been found to be a function of specimen ligament size. With the availability of instrumented hammers, it became possible to resolve propagation energy using the load-displacement curve using a single specimen. This paper focuses on refining the steady state fracture propagation energy, using back-slotted Drop Weight Tear Test (DWTT) specimens. The study included numerical simulation of the dynamic response of back-slotted specimens. The significance of the back-slot in altering the stress/strain field ahead of the propagation crack is discussed. The numerical simulation was also used to determine the strain rate in the “process zone” of the crack tip during steady state fracture propagation.

Author(s):  
L. N. Pussegoda ◽  
A. Fredj ◽  
A. Dinovitzer ◽  
D. Horsley ◽  
D. Carlson

Recent developments in ductile fracture resistance measures in high grade steels in the pipeline industry include the crack tip opening angle (CTOA) and “steady state” fracture propagation energy, using 3-point bend specimens. The CTOA has been found to be a function of specimen ligament size. Alternatives would be “steady state” fracture propagation energy, critical fracture strain and adoption of damage mechanisms. This paper focuses on modeling approaches for crack propagation using damage mechanisms. The tension test is used to “calibrate” the damage model parameters and applied to the crack propagation in a 3-point bend specimen in candidate high grade steels. The effects of using parameters developed from tension test and extending to a 3-point bend crack propagation scenario is discussed.


Author(s):  
Gery M. Wilkowski ◽  
David L. Rudland ◽  
Yong-Yi Wang ◽  
David Horsley ◽  
Alan Glover ◽  
...  

Large-diameter gas pipelines typically have a design requirement to ensure that the toughness is sufficient to avoid brittle or ductile fractures from occurring. New pipeline design requirements with richer gases, higher-grade steels, higher operating pressures, and in some cases lower operating temperatures require considerable extrapolation of the current ductile fracture design equations. To obtain a better understanding of ductile fracture arrest toughness, TCPL has funded efforts to assess the steady-state fracture toughness from specimens that can be used in mill applications. This paper reviews past efforts to assess the regions of steady-state ductile crack growth in test specimens, as well as current test results from numerous highly instrumented impact specimens. The new test results were for X52, X70, and X80 linepipe steels, whereas the past efforts were from linepipe steels, aerospace materials, as well as ferritic and austenitic nuclear piping steels. All of these results show that there is a limited region over which the steady-state fracture resistance can be determined. The fracture energy associated with steady-state fracture is the total energy minus; (1) the energy associated with initiation of the crack (including indentation energy and global yielding of the specimen), (2) the transient crack growth from initiation to reaching steady-state fracture, and (3) a non-steady-state fracture region at the end of the test record. Instrumented load versus load-line displacement data were linked to high-speed digital video data of the crack growth, crack-tip-opening angle (within 2 mm of the crack tip), and crack-mouth-opening displacement. These data allowed for comparison of J-R curves and crack-tip-opening angle values during crack growth to help determine the regions of steady-state crack growth. The results from these efforts are an important consideration in the development of a single test specimen method that can be used for determining the ductile fracture resistance of high-strength and high-toughness linepipe steels.


Author(s):  
Ph. P. Darcis ◽  
G. Kohn ◽  
A. Bussiba ◽  
J. D. McColskey ◽  
C. N. McCowan ◽  
...  

Crack tip opening angle (CTOA) is becoming one of the more widely accepted properties for characterizing fully plastic fracture. In fact, it has been recognized as a measure of the resistance of a material to fracture, in cases where there is a large degree of stable-tearing crack extension during the fracture process. This type of steady-state fracture resistance takes place when the CTOA in a material reaches a critical value, as typically occurs in low-constraint configurations. Our current research has applied the CTOA concept as an alternative or an addition to the Charpy V-notch and the drop weight tear test (DWTT) fracture energy in pipeline characterization. A test technique for direct measurement of CTOA was developed, using a modified double cantilever beam (MDCB) specimen. A digital camera and image analysis software are used to record the progression of the crack tip and to estimate CTOA using the crack edges adjacent to the crack tip. A steady-state CTOA has been successfully measured on five different strength grades of gas pipeline steel (four low strength grades and one high strength grade: X100). In addition, two-dimensional finite element models (2D FEMs) are used to demonstrate the sequence of the fracture process and the deformation mechanisms involved. The CTOA measurements and models are correlated and agree well.


Author(s):  
Do-Jun Shim ◽  
Gery Wilkowski ◽  
Da-Ming Duan ◽  
Joe Zhou

The effect of fracture speed on the ductile fracture resistance of line-pipe steels can have an important effect in the basic understanding of the toughness requirements for crack arrest. Over the last few decades, it has become recognized that the drop-weight tear test (DWTT) better represents the ductile fracture resistance than the Charpy test since it utilizes a specimen that has the full thickness of the pipe and has a fracture path long enough to reach steady-state fracture resistance. However, the fracture speed in the DWTT is typically 50 to 60 feet per second (15.2 to 18.3 m/s), whereas the fracture speed in the full-scale pipe test is 300 to 1,000 fps (91.4 to 305 m/s). Recently, the authors have extended the DWTT work and developed a modified back-slot DWTT specimen to obtain higher fracture speeds. One aspect of this modified specimen was to increase the width of DWTT sample from the standard 3-inch (76.2 mm) to 5-inch (127 mm). This was done to increase the ligament length in a relatively deep back-slotted specimen to capture more steady-state data. The initial experimental results demonstrated that this type of specimen can be used to obtain higher fracture speeds. Furthermore, the experimental results clearly showed the effect of fracture speed on the ductile fracture resistance. In this paper, to extend the work on modified back-slot DWTT specimens, the tup was instrumented to measure the load during dynamic impact. From this, the load-displacement curve, steady-state energy (or energy per area) was obtained for the modified back-slot DWTT specimens. These results were compared to those obtained from the standard 3-inch specimens. These results also clearly showed the effect of fracture speed on fracture resistance.


Author(s):  
Sayyed H. Hashemi ◽  
Ian C. Howard ◽  
John R. Yates ◽  
Robert M. Andrews ◽  
Alan M. Edwards

Failure information from recent full-scale burst experiments on modern TMCP gas pipeline steels having a yield strength level of 690MPa and higher has shown that the CTOA fracture criterion can be effectively used to predict the arrest/propagation behaviour of the pipe against possible axial ductile fractures. The use of CTOA as an alternative or an addition to the Charpy V-notch and DWTT fracture energy in pipelines is currently under review. A significant difficulty currently limiting the more extensive use of CTOA in pipeline assessment is its practical evaluation either in the real structure or in a laboratory scale test. Different combinations of experimental and finite element analyses have been proposed for the measurement of the CTOA of a material. Although most of these models are able to predict the CTOA effectively, their implementation requires extensive calibration processes using the test load-deflection data. The authors have recently developed a novel test technique for direct measurement of the steady state CTOA using a modified double cantilever beam geometry. The technique uses optical imaging to register the uniform deformation of a fine square grid scored on the sides of the specimen. The slope of the deformed gridlines near the crack tip is measured during crack growth from captured images. Its value is a representative of the material CTOA. This paper presents recent results from the implementation of the technique to determine the steady state CTOA (steady state in this work refers to regions of ductile crack growth where CTOA values are constant and independent of crack length) of API X80 and X100 grade gas pipeline steels. In each case the approach was able to produce large amounts of highly consistent CTOA data from both sides of the test sample even from a single specimen. This extensive data set allowed an evaluation of the variance of the stable CTOA as the crack grew through the microstructure. The test method generated a steady CTOA value of 11.1° for X80 and 8.5° for X100 steels tested, respectively.


1981 ◽  
Vol 103 (2) ◽  
pp. 148-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Smith

The equivalence of the final stretch and crack tip opening angle criteria, as applied to the Dugdale-Bilby-Cottrell-Swinden type model for Mode I plane strain crack growth, is demonstrated. This equivalence is independent of the plastic zone size, geometrical parameters, and the stress distribution within the fracture process zone, if the yield stress is sufficiently low and the crack growth resistance is sufficiently high. The results therefore provide further support for the viability of crack tip opening angle as a crack growth characterizing parameter.


Author(s):  
K. K. Botros ◽  
E. J. Clavelle ◽  
M. Uddin ◽  
G. Wilkowski ◽  
C. Guan

Axial ductile fracture propagation and arrest in high energy pipelines has been studied since the early 1970’s with the development of the empirical Battelle Two-Curve (BTC) model. Numerous empirical corrections on the backfill, gas decompression models, and fracture toughness have been proposed over the past decades. While this approach has worked in most cases, the dynamic interaction between the decompression of the fluid in the vicinity of the crack tip and the behaviour of the pipe material as it opens to form flaps behind the crack has been very difficult to solve from a more fundamental approach. The effects of the pressure distribution on the flap inner surface making up the crack-driving force which drives the crack propagation speed has been suggested in the past, but due to intensive computational effort required, it was never realized. The present paper attempts to tackle this problem by employing an iterative solution procedure where the gas pressure field in the vicinity of the crack tip is accurately solved for by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) for a given flap geometry determined from a dynamic FEA model to render a new flap geometry. In this model a cohesive-zone element at the crack tip is employed as a representation of the material toughness parameter. The final outcome is the determination of the cohesive energy in the FEA (as a representation of the material toughness parameter) to match the measured fracture propagation speed for the specific case. A case study was taken from full-scale rupture test data from one of the pipe joints from the Japanese Gas Association (JGA) unbackfilled pipe burst test data conducted in 2004 on the 762 mm O.D., 17.5 mm wall thickness, Gr. 555 MPa (API 5L X80) pipe.


Author(s):  
Takuya Hara ◽  
Taishi Fujishiro

The demand for natural gas using LNG and pipelines to supply the world gas markets is increasing. The use of high-strength line pipe provides a reduction in the cost of gas transmission pipelines by enabling high-pressure transmission of large volumes of gas. Under the large demand of high-strength line pipe, crack arrestability of running ductile fracture behavior is one of the most important properties. The CVN (Charpy V-notched) test and the DWTT (Drop Weight Tear Test) are major test methods to evaluate the crack arrestability of running ductile fractures. Separation, which is defined as a fracture parallel to the rolling plane, can be characteristic of the fracture in both full-scale burst tests and DWTTs. It is reported that separations deteriorate the crack arrestability of running ductile fracture, and also that small amounts of separation do not affect the running ductile fracture resistance. This paper describes the effect of separation on ductile propagation behavior. We utilized a high-speed camera to investigate the CTOA (Crack Tip Opening Angle) during the DWTT. We show that some separations deteriorate ductile crack propagation resistance and that some separations do not affect the running ductile fracture resistance.


Author(s):  
Aida Nonn ◽  
Marcelo Paredes ◽  
Vincent Keim ◽  
Tomasz Wierzbicki

Various numerical approaches have been developed in the last years aimed to simulate the ductile fracture propagation in pipelines transporting CO2 or natural gas. However, a reliable quantification of the influence of material plasticity on the fracture resistance is still missing. Therefore, more accurate description of the material plasticity on the ductile fracture propagation is required based on a suitable numerical methodology. In this study, different plasticity and fracture models are compared regarding the ductile fracture propagation in X100 pipeline steel with the objective to quantify the influence of plasticity parameters on the fracture resistance. The plastic behavior of the investigated material is considered by the quadratic yield surface in conjunction with a non-associated quadratic plastic flow potential. The strain hardening can be appropriately described by the mixed Swift-Voce law. The simulations of ductile fracture are conducted by an uncoupled, modified Mohr-Coulomb (MMC) and the micromechanically based Gurson-Tvergaard-Needleman (GTN) models. In contract to the original GTN model, the MMC model is capable of describing ductile failure over wide range of stress states. Thus, ductile fracture resistance can be estimated for various load and fracture scenarios. Both models are used for the simulation of fracture propagation in DWTT and 3D pressurized pipe sections. The results from the present work can serve as a basis for establishing the correlation between plasticity parameters and ductile fracture propagation.


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