Full Size Fatigue Crack-Growth Testing for Girth Welds

Author(s):  
Paulo Gioielli ◽  
Jaime Buitrago

Fatigue crack-growth modeling has a significant impact in establishing defect acceptance criteria for the inspection of fracture-critical, girth-welded components, such as risers and tendons. ExxonMobil has developed an experimental technique to generate crack-growth data, in actual welded tubulars, that account for the particular material properties, geometry, and residual stresses. The technique is fully compatible with conventional fracture mechanics models. It uses a series of pre-designed notches made around the welds on a production quality, full-scale specimen that is tested efficiently in a resonant fatigue setup. The crack development from notches is monitored during testing and evaluated post-mortem. Given its simplicity and high loading frequency, the technique provides growth data germane to the component at hand at a lower cost and faster than standard, small-scale tests.

1991 ◽  
Vol 113 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. C. McClung ◽  
H. Sehitoglu

Parameters previously proposed for the correlation of elastic-plastic fatigue crack growth data are critically reviewed and compared from a pragmatic engineering standpoint. Commonly employed estimates for the four most common parameters are shown to have essentially the same structure and to be numerically similar, despite their widely differing theoretical backgrounds. The significance of fatigue crack closure for crack growth under these conditions is considered. Elastic-plastic finite element analyses of crack closure are presented and compared with experimental data and simple analytical models. Normalized crack opening stresses are shown to change significantly between small scale and large scale yielding conditions, especially for R= − 1 loading. Different schemes for incorporating closure information into the crack growth parameters are examined, and the consequences of closure for the numerical structure of the parameter estimates are demonstrated. Experimental crack growth data from 1026 and 1070 steels are correlated with estimates of ΔK and ΔJ, both considering and neglecting the effects of crack closure. The data comprise wide ranges of maximum stress, plastic strain amplitude, and crack length, including conditions of small, intermediate, and large scale yielding. Correlations which include an explicit correction for crack closure are shown to be superior.


1969 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 343-349 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. P. Pook

Some fatigue crack growth data have been obtained for age-hardened beryllium copper. The fatigue crack growth rate was found to be very dependent on the hardness and tensile mean stress. This dependence is believed to be associated with the intense residual stresses surrounding Preston-Guinier zones.


Author(s):  
Yuji Ozawa ◽  
Tatsuya Ishikawa ◽  
Yoichi Takeda

In order to clarify the mechanism of fatigue crack growth in alloy 625, which is a candidate material for use in advanced ultra supercritical power plants, the crack tip damage zone formation after a crack growth test conducted in high temperature steam was investigated. It was observed that the oxide thickness at the crack tip tended to increase with decreasing cyclic loading frequency. The crack path was a mix of transgranular and intergranular fractures. According to the grain reference orientation deviation (GROD) maps, it was revealed that the density of geometrically necessary dislocations (GNDs) in the matrix along the crack path and ahead of crack tip increased with an increase in the fatigue crack growth rate (FCGR) due to environmental effects. It was observed that (1) mobile dislocations at the crack surface were blocked due to the thick oxide layer, resulting in an increase in the density of GNDs, and (2) an increase in the density of GNDs might induce stress concentration at the crack tip, deformation twinning, and the acceleration of FCGRs.


1996 ◽  
Vol 118 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shinji Konosu ◽  
Tomohiro Kishiro ◽  
Ogi Ivano ◽  
Yoshihiko Nunoya ◽  
Hideo Nakajima ◽  
...  

The structural materials of the coils of superconducting magnets utilized in thermonuclear fusion reactors are used at liquid helium (4.2 K) temperatures and are subjected to repeated thermal stresses and electromagnetic forces. A high strength, high toughness austenitic stainless steel (12Cr-12Ni-10Mn-5Mo-0.2N) has recently been developed for large, thick-walled components used in such environments. This material is non-magnetic even when subjected to processing and, because it is a forging material, it is advantageous as a structural material for large components. In the current research, a large forging of 12Cr-12Ni-10Mn-5Mo-0.2N austenitic stainless steel, was fabricated to a thickness of 250 mm, which is typical of section thicknesses encountered in actual equipment. The tensile fatigue crack growth properties of the forging were examined at liquid helium temperature as function of specimen location across the thickness of the forging. There was virtually no evidence of variation in tensile strength or fatigue crack growth properties attributable to different sampling locations in the thickness direction and no effect of thickness due to the forging or solution treatment associated with large forgings was observed. It has been clarified that there are cases in which small scale yielding (SSY) conditions are not fulfilled when stress ratios are large. ΔJ was introduced in order to achieve unified expression inclusive of these regions and, by expressing crack growth rate accordingly, the following formula was obtained at the second stage (middle range). da/dN = CJ ΔJmJ, CJ = AJ/(ΔJ0)mJ, where, AJ = 1.47 × 10−5 mm/cycle, ΔJ0 = 2.42 × 103N/m.


Author(s):  
Daowu Zhou ◽  
T. Sriskandarajah ◽  
Heidi Bowlby ◽  
Ove Skorpen

The deformation mechanism in reel-lay of corrosive resistance alloy (CRA) clad/lined pipes can facilitate defect tearing and low cycle fatigue crack growth in the girth welds. Pipe-lay after straightening will subject the CRA welds to high cycle fatigue. The permissible seastate for installation will be governed by failure limit states such as local collapse, wrinkling of the liner, fatigue and fracture. By means of a recently completed offshore project in North Sea, this paper discusses seastate optimisation when installing pipelines with CRA girth welds, from a fatigue and fracture perspective. The additional limiting requirement in CRA welds to maintain CRA liner integrity can lead to significant assessment work since all critical welds shall be examined. AUT scanned defect data were utilised to maximise permissible seastates based on fatigue allowance from a fatigue crack growth calculation. An alternative simplified approach to derive the crack growth based on a superposition method is studied. It enables a straightforward real-time prediction of crack growth and has the potential to be used during the offshore campaign to improve the installation flexibility. Post-installation fracture assessment under more critical seastates is examined for CRA partial over-matching welds. A comparison of CDF between conventional ECA procedure and 3D FE is provided.


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