Assessment of Pipeline Fatigue Crack-Growth Life

Author(s):  
Carl E. Jaske

This paper describes an accepted approach for predicting fatigue crack-growth life in pipelines. Fatigue life is computed as the number of cycles for a crack-like flaw to grow from an initial size to a final critical size. This computation is performed by integrating a fracture-mechanics model for fatigue crack growth. The initial flaw size is estimated either from inspection results or by using fracture mechanics to predict the largest flaw that would have survived a hydrostatic pressure test. The final flaw size is estimated using fracture mechanics. Fracture-mechanics models for computing fatigue crack growth and predicting flaw size are reviewed. The anticipated cyclic loading must be characterized to perform the crack-growth calculations. Typically, cyclic loading histories, such as pressure cycle data, are analyzed and used to estimate future loadings. To utilize the crack-growth models, the cycles in the loading history must be counted. The rainflow cycle counting procedure is used to characterize the loading history and develop a histogram of load range versus number of cycles. This histogram is then used in the fatigue crack-growth analysis. Results of example calculations are discussed to illustrate the procedure and show the effects of periodic hydrostatic testing, threshold stress intensity factor range, and pressure ratio on predicted fatigue crack-growth life.

Author(s):  
Javad Safari ◽  
Ramgopal Thodla ◽  
Ian Merchant ◽  
John Hamilton

Fatigue Crack Growth Rate (FCGR) of reeled pipe (strained & aged) in sour environments was investigated. FCGR frequency scans on different microstructures, i.e. heat affected zone (HAZ), and weld center line (WCL), revealed that, FCGR in corrosive environments increased with decreasing frequency and reached a plateau value at low frequencies of 10mHz to 3mHz. At these ‘plateau frequencies’, FCGR in the moderately sour environment that was investigated were found to be about 10–18× or 30× higher than the in-air values for the WCL and HAZ, respectively. There was no effect of the reeling cycles on the FCGR of the WCL or HAZ specimens. The FCGRs of the WCL were consistently lower than that of the HAZ by about a factor of 2–3× under various conditions. The reason for the lower FCGR of the WCL is not well understood. It is possible that it may be due to the higher yield strength (YS) of the overmatched welds, differing hydrogen concentration and/or diffusion coefficient or possibly due to the differences in the microstructure between the HAZ and WCL. Paris law curves, FCGRs as a function of ΔK (stress intensity factor range), were measured on the HAZ, and WCL (both intrados) at the plateau frequency (10mHz), representative of flowline cyclic loading. They were also measured at a higher frequency of 0.33Hz, representative of Steel Catenary Risers (SCR) cyclic loading associated with wave motion. Comparisons of measured Paris law curves in corrosive environments to those in air were consistent with the results of the frequency scans. There was no effect of number of cycles of reeling on the Paris law curves in the sour environment tested for WCL and HAZ specimens at both the plateau frequency and 0.33Hz. The results of the test program suggest FCGR of WCL and HAZ in the sour environment tested are not affected by number of cycles (up to 5) of straining on the intrados side for the strain level (1.93% per cycle) used in this study.


Author(s):  
Naoki Miura ◽  
Masaki Nagai

When cracked bodies are subjected to cyclic loading, fatigue crack growth evaluation is often required from the viewpoint of the assurance of fitness-for-service. For cyclic loading with constant amplitude, crack growth can be calculated by integrating a fatigue crack growth rate law provided by the Paris law in terms of stress intensity factor range. However, the cause of cyclic loading supposed in actual structures is not simple. For an example of LWR (Light Water Reactor) plants, a number of datasets of cyclic loading with different amplitudes is necessary for specific transient events. And the chronological order of individual transients cannot be determined. In this paper, a universal procedure to deal with multiple transients was developed in case that the chronological order of the transients was indefinite. Cyclic loading sequence such that the loadings were lined up in the order corresponding to larger amplitude gave the most conservative crack growth prediction among the possible sequences from the set of the specific transient events. Nevertheless the effect of the sequence was quite limited and the differences in fatigue crack growth were much less than the accuracy of the analysis outputs.


2012 ◽  
Vol 152-154 ◽  
pp. 293-296 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seon Jin Kim ◽  
Yeui Han Jeong ◽  
Hye Jeong Sohn

The process of fatigue crack growth is generally random nature, due to many sources of variability, such as external loading, material properties and geometry conditions. Therefore is is important to investigate the statistical variability of fatigue crack growth in order to development the methodology for probabilistic fatigue crack growth life prediction. This paper is concerned with the randomness investigation of fatigue crack growth for the FSWed 7075-T651 aluminum alloys. In this investigation, the fatigue crack growth tests were conducted for five compact tension (CT) specimens of the FSWed 7075-T651 aluminum alloys, base metal (BM), heat affected zones (HAZ) and weld metal (WM), especially three different constant stress intensity factor range (SIFR) controls.


Metals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 1183
Author(s):  
Edmundo R. Sérgio ◽  
Fernando V. Antunes ◽  
Diogo M. Neto ◽  
Micael F. Borges

The fatigue crack growth (FCG) process is usually accessed through the stress intensity factor range, ΔK, which has some limitations. The cumulative plastic strain at the crack tip has provided results in good agreement with the experimental observations. Also, it allows understanding the crack tip phenomena leading to FCG. Plastic deformation inevitably leads to micro-porosity occurrence and damage accumulation, which can be evaluated with a damage model, such as Gurson–Tvergaard–Needleman (GTN). This study aims to access the influence of the GTN parameters, related to growth and nucleation of micro-voids, on the predicted crack growth rate. The results show the connection between the porosity values and the crack closure level. Although the effect of the porosity on the plastic strain, the predicted effect of the initial porosity on the predicted crack growth rate is small. The sensitivity analysis identified the nucleation amplitude and Tvergaard’s loss of strength parameter as the main factors, whose variation leads to larger changes in the crack growth rate.


Author(s):  
Steven J. Polasik ◽  
Carl E. Jaske

Pipeline operators must rely on fatigue crack growth models to evaluate the effects of operating pressure acting on flaws within the longitudinal seam to set re-assessment intervals. In most cases, many of the critical parameters in these models are unknown and must be assumed. As such, estimated remaining lives can be overly conservative, potentially leading to unrealistic and short reassessment intervals. This paper describes the fatigue crack growth methodology utilized by Det Norske Veritas (USA), Inc. (DNV), which is based on established fracture mechanics principles. DNV uses the fracture mechanics model in CorLAS™ to calculate stress intensity factors using the elastic portion of the J-integral for either an elliptically or rectangularly shaped surface crack profile. Various correction factors are used to account for key variables, such as strain hardening rate and bulging. The validity of the stress intensity factor calculations utilized and the effect of modifying some key parameters are discussed and demonstrated against available data from the published literature.


Author(s):  
Li H. Wang

Fatigue crack growth rates (FCGR) of sensitized austenitic stainless steel (SS) were measured in simulated BWR water at 288 °C using compact tension specimens under different cyclic loading modes, including saw-tooth, trapezoidal and constant loading pattern. This study tested sensitized SS in normal water chemistry (NWC) and hydrogen water chemistry (HWC) respectively, and attempted to clarify the effect of low electrochemical corrosion potential on the FCGR of sensitized stainless steel. Significant environment effects on FCGR of sensitized stainless steel were observed in both water chemistries when compared with air fatigue curve. The pronounced suppression effect of HWC on crack growth in statically sustained load was not observed in cyclic loading condition. ASME curve doesn’t seem to be conservative and could not bound all the FCGR data tested in this study. In contrast, all of the measured FCGR data were bound by the JSME disposition curve. PLEDGE model proposed by General Electric reasonably predicted the FCGR of sensitized SS in NWC, but underestimated the FCGR in HWC. ANL’s superposition model successfully estimated the FCGR measured in both water chemistries. The fractography exhibited transgranular fracture mode during the crack initiation and growth stage. No differences in the appearance of fracture surface were observed in HWC and NWC. Only in very high DO environments, the sensitized 304 SS exhibited the mixed mode of intergranular and transgranular during growth stage.


2014 ◽  
Vol 891-892 ◽  
pp. 1675-1680
Author(s):  
Seok Jae Chu ◽  
Cong Hao Liu

Finite element simulation of stable fatigue crack growth using critical crack tip opening displacement (CTOD) was done. In the preliminary finite element simulation without crack growth, the critical CTOD was determined by monitoring the ratio between the displacement increments at the nodes above the crack tip and behind the crack tip in the neighborhood of the crack tip. The critical CTOD was determined as the vertical displacement at the node on the crack surface just behind the crack tip at the maximum ratio. In the main finite element simulation with crack growth, the crack growth rate with respect to the effective stress intensity factor range considering crack closure yielded more consistent result. The exponents m in the Paris law were determined.


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