Crack Growth Sensitivity to the Magnitude and Frequency of Load Fluctuation in Stage 1b of High pH Stress Corrosion Cracking

CORROSION ◽  
10.5006/3711 ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hamid Niazi ◽  
Greg Nelson ◽  
Lyndon Lamborn ◽  
Reg Eadie ◽  
Weixing Chen ◽  
...  

Pipelines undergo sequential stages before failure caused by High pH Stress Corrosion Cracking (HpHSCC). These sequential stages are incubation stage, intergranular crack initiation (Stage 1a), crack evolution to provide the condition for mechanically driven crack growth (Stage 1b), sustainable mechanically driven crack propagation (Stage 2), and rapid crack propagation to failure (Stage 3). The crack propagation mechanisms in Stage 1b are composed of the nucleation and growth of secondary cracks on the free surface and crack coalescence of secondary cracks with one another and the primary crack. These mechanisms continue until the stress intensity factor (<i>K</i>) at the crack tip reaches a critical value, known as <i>K</i><sub>ISCC</sub>. This investigation took a novel approach to study Stage 1b in using pre-cracked Compact Tension (CT) specimens. Using pre-cracked specimens and maintaining <i>K</i> at less than <i>K</i><sub>ISCC</sub> provided an opportunity to study crack initiation on the surface of the specimen under plane stress conditions in the presence of a pre-existing crack. In the present work, the effects of cyclic loading characteristics on crack growth behavior during Stage 1b were studied. It was observed that the pre-existing cracks during Stage 1b led to the initiation of secondary cracks. The initiation of the secondary cracks at the crack tip depended on loading characteristics, <i>i.e</i>., the amplitude and frequency of load fluctuations. The secondary cracks at the crack tip can be classified into four categories based on their positions with respect to the primary crack. A high density of intergranular cracks formed in the cyclic plastic zone generated by low R-ratio cycles. The higher the frequency of the low <i>R</i>-ratio cycles, the higher the density of the intergranular cracks forming in the cyclic plastic zone. The crack growth rate increased with an increase in either the amplitude or the frequency of the load fluctuations. The minimum and maximum crack growth rates were 8×10<sup>-9</sup> mm/s and 4.2×10<sup>-7</sup> mm/s, respectively, with <i>R</i>-ratio varying between 0.2 and 0.9, frequency varying between 10<sup>-4</sup> Hz and 5×10<sup>-2</sup> Hz, and at a fixed stress intensity factor of 15 MPa.m<sup>0.5</sup>. It was found that avoiding rapid and large load fluctuations slowed down crack geometry evolution and delayed onset of Stage 2. The implication of these results for pipeline operators is that reducing internal pressure fluctuations by reducing the frequency and/or amplitude of the fluctuations can expand Stage 1 and increase the reliable lifetime of operating pipelines.

2021 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bing Yang ◽  
Zhanjiang Wei ◽  
Zhen Liao ◽  
Shuwei Zhou ◽  
Shoune Xiao ◽  
...  

AbstractIn the digital image correlation research of fatigue crack growth rate, the accuracy of the crack tip position determines the accuracy of the calculation of the stress intensity factor, thereby affecting the life prediction. This paper proposes a Gauss-Newton iteration method for solving the crack tip position. The conventional linear fitting method provides an iterative initial solution for this method, and the preconditioned conjugate gradient method is used to solve the ill-conditioned matrix. A noise-added artificial displacement field is used to verify the feasibility of the method, which shows that all parameters can be solved with satisfactory results. The actual stress intensity factor solution case shows that the stress intensity factor value obtained by the method in this paper is very close to the finite element result, and the relative error between the two is only − 0.621%; The Williams coefficient obtained by this method can also better define the contour of the plastic zone at the crack tip, and the maximum relative error with the test plastic zone area is − 11.29%. The relative error between the contour of the plastic zone defined by the conventional method and the area of the experimental plastic zone reached a maximum of 26.05%. The crack tip coordinates, stress intensity factors, and plastic zone contour changes in the loading and unloading phases are explored. The results show that the crack tip change during the loading process is faster than the change during the unloading process; the stress intensity factor during the unloading process under the same load condition is larger than that during the loading process; under the same load, the theoretical plastic zone during the unloading process is higher than that during the loading process.


Author(s):  
Wan-P’ng Foo ◽  
Rafael Castillo

Microcracks caused by hot cracking or strain age cracking mechanisms are very likely to be discovered in the weld repair zone of precision cast IN738LC gas turbine blades. The possibility of crack propagation under the operating conditions of the gas turbine thereby becomes a crucial issue for gas turbine designers. The creep crack growth rate in air of the hipped and fully heat treated IN738LC was measured at the service temperature experienced by the first stage turbine blade tip. The corresponding growth behaviour was also studied. The creep crack growth rate, da/dt, versus crack tip stress intensity factor, K1, a relation which exhibits the typical primary, secondary and tertiary behaviour, supports the applicability of K1 as an appropriate correlating parameter for the creep crack growth of this Ni-based superalloy under the loading conditions used in this study. Microstructural examination illustrated that the creep crack growth of IN738LC principally takes place by the nucleation, growth, coalescence and link-up of grain boundary microvoids and microcracks. An excellent approximation of the stress intensity factor under service loading conditions in the vicinity of the crack tip was obtained by using the Westinghouse WECAN finite element analysis. It is shown that the crack tip stress intensity factor under normal loading conditions will not be able to drive the transverse through-the-wall-thickness blade tip crack in this study.


Author(s):  
Motoki Nakane ◽  
Satoshi Kanno ◽  
Shota Hashimoto ◽  
Takayuki Watanabe ◽  
Yukio Takahashi

This study discusses methods for evaluating fatigue crack propagation under torsional loading for pipes. To achieve this objective, fatigue crack propagation tests were carried out on both stainless steel and carbon steel used in piping systems of nuclear power plants. Two different kinds of pipes were tested in this study. These pipes had the same shape but the diameter and thickness of the larger pipe were twice those of the smaller pipe. The nominal shear stress amplitudes applied to the specimen were set between 50 and 100 MPa depending on the dimension of the specimen and desired crack growth rates. All fatigue tests were conducted under pure torsional loading with stress ratio R = −1 and at room temperature. The geometrical correction factors for the specimen were derived from elastic J-integral calculated by the FEM. The fatigue crack propagation tests results show that the crack growth rates estimated by the elastic stress intensity factor with the geometrical correction factor were much faster than curves prescribed in The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers (JSME) codes. These results suggest that elastic plastic fracture parameters should be considered into the stress intensity factor because yield stresses for torsional loading would be smaller than those of uniaxial loading. The plastic zone correction method and modified reference stress method were examined as alternative methods. The crack growth rates estimated by the proposed methods almost totally correspond to the JSME curves. The two proposed methods were found to be quite effective at correctly evaluating the crack growth rates under torsional loading.


2014 ◽  
Vol 80 (815) ◽  
pp. SMM0194-SMM0194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sho KAWATSU ◽  
Tetsuo YASUOKA ◽  
Yoshihiro MIZUTANI ◽  
Akira TODOROKI ◽  
Yoshiro SUZUKI

1975 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 199-205 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. M. Branco ◽  
J. C. Radon ◽  
L. E. Culver

The effects of the mean stress-intensity factor, Km, and the range of the stress intensity, Δ K, on crack propagation phenomena in the Al-alloy RR 58 have been studied using contoured double-cantilever beam specimens providing a constant stress-intensity factor for all crack lengths. Based on the experimental data available, a relationship of the following form, between the cyclic crack growth rate, d a/d N, and the tensile loading levels, has been proposed: where Δ K = ( Kmax - Kmin); Kmax, Kmin and Km are the maximum, minimum and mean values of the stress-intensity factor; Δ Kth is the threshold value of Δ K for crack propagation; K1C is the critical fracture toughness in plane strain conditions; A and α arc constants. In tests at room temperature (21 °C) in laboratory air and at a loading frequency of 0.15 Hz, it was found that Δ Kth decreased with increasing values of K m, α was equal to 1.36 and A equalled 3.16 times 10-5(in/cycle).


Author(s):  
Jianwei Dong ◽  
Weichi Pei ◽  
Hongchao Ji ◽  
Haiyang Long ◽  
Xiaobin Fu ◽  
...  

42CrMo steel is widely used in ultrahigh-strength structures such as low-speed heavy-duty gears. Mastering the fatigue crack propagation law has important significance for predicting structural fatigue life. Firstly, the fatigue crack propagation experiment is used to obtain the upper and lower thresholds value of type I fatigue crack propagation of 42CrMo steel compact tensile specimen under the alternating load of stress ratio R = 0.1. The Paris formula describing the relationship between the fatigue crack propagation rate and the crack tip stress intensity factor between the upper and lower thresholds value is obtained. Scanning electron microscopy was used to observe the microscopic features of different stages of fatigue fracture. The results show that the twin boundary can provide a place for crack initiation; the defects in the material can promote the initiation and extension of fatigue cracks. The fatigue crack propagation of 42CrMo steel compact tensile specimens was numerically simulated by the finite element method. The relationship between the crack tip stress intensity factor and the crack length was obtained. The analysis results show that the crack tip stress intensity factor calculated by the plane finite element method differs slightly from the experimental results during the stable extension stage. After correction, the correlation coefficient between the numerical simulation correction value and the crack tip stress intensity factor value obtained by the experiment is 0.9926. Finally, the fatigue crack propagation rate corresponding to the crack tip stress intensity factor in the finite element results is calculated by the Paris formula and briefly analyzed. Compared with the experimental results, it shows that the numerical simulation is consistent with it, indicating the accuracy of the numerical simulation method, which can effectively predict the initiation and propagation of fatigue cracks in 42CrMo steel compact tensile specimens.


2010 ◽  
Vol 303-304 ◽  
pp. 63-83
Author(s):  
Ehsan Mahdavi ◽  
Mahmoud Mosavi Mashhadi ◽  
M. Amidpour

It is well known that the crack growth rate fatigue and stress corrosion cracking can be approximated by a power function of the stress intensity factor. In this study, stress intensity factor for elliptical crack under the uniform tension in linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM) is investigated therefore for this purpose, a pressure vessel modeled by finite element. A crack modeled on the pressure vessel and then the stress intensity factor for crack propagation in different methods is evaluated. Finite element analysis calculates stress intensity factor in the values of the J-integral are based on the stress intensity factors, JK, and by evaluating the contour integral directly, JA. The stability of crack growth is considered so the ductile crack extension is determined by pursuing the equilibrium between loading and crack resistance. Using especial method of meshing caused to have accurate results. This method causes to decrease run time and considerable accuracy. Then stress intensity factor is calculated for different position of the crack such as crack front and then compared to each other.


1975 ◽  
Vol 97 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. J. Cain ◽  
R. Plunkett ◽  
T. E. Hutchinson

Flat sheet stock of 2024-T3 Duralumin was tested for fatigue crack propagation in simple bending. Transcrystalline cracking was observed at a rate proportional to stress intensity factor squared at low levels where the plastic zone is less than grain size. A mixture of trans-and-intercrystalline cracking was observed at a rate proportional to stress intensity factor to the fourth power at high levels where the plastic zone is larger than grain size. A strain redistribution mechanism giving constant stress intensity factor through the thickness is postulated. The combination of strain redistribution in bending and change of mechanism with plastic zone size leads to a macroscopic behavior which is different from that previously reported for simple tension, particularly in mild steel.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document