Research on Brittle Fracture of X70/X80 Line Pipes with Big Wall Thickness at Low Temperature

Based on research of the low temperature fracture property of high grade steel pipe, it shows that X70, X80 steel pipe and X80 tee have high Charpy impact toughness. However, as the wall thickness increases, the shear area of DWTT decreases rapidly, and the thickness effect is significant. The research results show that the original wall thickness impact specimen fracture of steel pipe may not be ductile, for design temperature less than -30°C and wall thickness greater than 40mm. The brittle fracture was caused by structural factors. The Charpy impact energy, which just reflects the toughness of materials, does not show the fracture appearance as it would occur in service, because of the different specimen geometry and high rate of impact. The brittle fracture can occur at low temperature and low stress even with a high Charpy impact energy, the conditions of brittle fracture should be established under combination of the wall thickness, temperature and other factors. In this work, it is clarified that measurement of the fracture toughness under service temperature should be used to control low stress brittle fracture, besides the Charpy impact energy to ensure the material toughness.