Joint final report on the development of a ductile pipe fracture model

Technical Report · Wed Jul 08 00:00:00 EDT 1992

OSTI ID:6814542

Kanninen, M F; Leung, C P; O'Donoghue, P E; Morrow, T B; Popelar, C F ^[1]; Buzzichelli, G; Demofonti, G; Hadley, I ^[2]; Rizzi, L ^[3]; Venzi, S ^[4]

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1. Southwest Research Inst., San Antonio, TX (United States). Engineering and Materials Science Div.
2. Centro Sviluppo Materiali S.p.A., Rome (Italy)
3. ILVA, Taranto (Italy). Taranto Works
4. SNAM, Milan (Italy)

Development of a fundamentally-based fracture propagation analysis model has been undertaken. This report describes progress made in a multi-organizational collaboration involving the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), Centro Sviluppo Materiali (CSM), and SNAM. Focal point has been SwRi's fluid/structure/fracture interactive, inelastic-dynamic, computational model for ductile fracture in gas transmission pipelines. Assurance was obtained through quantitative comparisons of crack speeds, pipe wall deformations, decompressed gas pressures and external effects measured in tests conducted by CSM on 56-in. dia steel pipes. Procedures were developed to infer specimen size-independent measures of the propagating fracture toughness from small-scale tests on line pipe materials. The linking of the latter element with the quantification of a maximum possible crack driving force for steady-state ductile fracture propagation obtained from the model achieved a basis for the validation that was sought. This validation was achieved in conjunction with three 56-inch pipe tests performed by CSM. Objectives were, first, to accurately quantify ductile crack propagation in gas transmission pipelines, and, second, to use this knowledge to provide the basis for a small-scale test procedure for use by gas transmission companies to design and operate their system without risk of a long-running ductile fracture. This report provides theoretical and procedural details of the models and the experiments, and illustrative results obtained by using the fracture propagation computer model to simulate full-scale experiments on steel gas transmission pipes. Included are key results showing that predicted decompressed gas pressure distribution, the deformed pipe shape, and crack speeds in full-scale pipe fracture experiments are well reproduced by the model.

• Research Organization: American Gas Association, Inc., Arlington, VA (United States). Pipeline Research Committee; Southwest Research Inst., San Antonio, TX (United States). Engineering and Materials Science Div.
• Sponsoring Organization: AGA; American Gas Association, Inc., Arlington, VA (United States)
• OSTI ID: 6814542
• Report Number(s): AGA-93007096; CNN: PR 15-527; PR 182-526
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

03 NATURAL GAS
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
NATURAL GAS DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMS
CRACK PROPAGATION
PIPELINES
BACKFILLING
COORDINATED RESEARCH PROGRAMS
FAILURE MODE ANALYSIS
FRACTURE MECHANICS
INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION
PROGRESS REPORT
SOIL-STRUCTURE INTERACTIONS
STEELS
ALLOYS
COOPERATION
DOCUMENT TYPES
IRON ALLOYS
IRON BASE ALLOYS
MECHANICS
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
SYSTEM FAILURE ANALYSIS
SYSTEMS ANALYSIS
032000* - Natural Gas- Transport
Handling
& Storage
360103 - Metals & Alloys- Mechanical Properties