Two-Parameter Criteria for Ductile Crack Initiation and Propagation in High-Grade Line Pipes
Full-scale burst test data of high-grade line pipes for high-pressure gas pipelines were referred to, and 3-D elastic-plastic finite element analysis was carried out using the test data for the calculation of fracture parameters. Ductile crack initiation was evaluated by the intersection of a toughness locus and a crack driving force curve, where the toughness locus was indicated by the relationship between the critical equivalent plastic strain and the stress triaxiality, and the crack driving force curve was shown by a history of the equivalent plastic strain and the stress triaxiality at characteristic distance. In addition, ductile crack rapid propagation was assessed by the relationship between the critical CTOA and the global constraint factor, where the critical CTOA remained almost constant because of high constraint.