Study on Constitutive Modeling for Large Deformation Behavior of Polyethylene Considering Strain Rate Effect

Polyethylene (PE) pipes have been applied in transportation of key energy medium such as natural gas in the past decades. The mechanical property of PE is of great importance for better design and safer application of PE pipeline system. The large deformation behavior is a key character of PE, not only for its significant strain rate sensitivity, but also for localized necking process after yielding. In this paper, a new constitutive modeling method was proposed to charaterize the rate-denpendent large deformation behavior of PE, in which the true stress is regarded as a function of true stain and true strain rate alone. Uniaxial tensile tests of PE were conducted under various cross-head speeds, and a digital camera was used to record the real-time deformation of specimens. By separating the composite effect into respective effect of local true strain and strain rate on the local true stress in the necking region, a phenomenological model for describing the rate-dependent deformation behavior under uniaxial tension was ealstablished. Model results were validated and found in good agreement with experimental data.

Hydrogen-Assisted Fracture of Type 316L Tubing and Orbital Welds

Austenitic stainless steels have been extensively tested in hydrogen environments. These studies have identified the relative effects of numerous materials and environmental variables on hydrogen-assisted fracture. While there is concern that welds are more sensitive to environmental effects than the non-welded base material, in general, there have been relatively few studies of the effects of gaseous hydrogen on the fracture and fatigue resistance of welded microstructures. The majority of published studies have considered welds with geometries significantly different from the welds produced in assembling pressure manifolds. In this study, conventional, uniaxial tensile testing was used to characterize tubing of type 316L austenitic stainless steel with an outside diameter of 6.35 mm. Additionally, orbital tube welds were produced and tested to compare to the non-welded tubing. The effects of internal hydrogen were studied after saturating the tubes and orbital welds with hydrogen by exposure to high-pressure gaseous hydrogen at elevated temperature. The effects of hydrogen on the ductility of the tubing and the orbital tube welds were found to be similar to the effects observed in previous studies of type 316L austenitic stainless steels.

Influence of Phase Transformations on Residual Stresses in Welded Structures

A key aspect of any numerical simulation to predict welding induced residual stresses is the development and application of an appropriate material model. Often significant effort is expended characterising the thermal, physical and hardening properties including complex phenomena such as high temperature annealing. Consideration of these aspects is sufficient to produce a realistic prediction for austenitic steels, however ferritic steels are susceptible to solid state phase transformations when heated to high temperatures. On cooling a reverse transformation occurs, with an associated volume change at the isothermal transformation temperature. Although numerical models exist (e.g. Leblond) to predict the evolution of the metallurgical phases, accounting for volumetric changes, it remains a matter of debate as to the magnitude of the impact of phase transformations on residual stresses. Often phase transformations are neglected entirely. In this work a simple phase transformation model is applied to a range of welded structures with the specific aim of assessing the impact, or otherwise, of phase transformations on the magnitude and distribution of predicted residual stresses. The welded structures considered account for a range of geometries from a simple ferritic beam specimen to a thick section multi-pass weld. The outcome of this work is an improved understanding of the role of phase transformation on residual stresses and an appreciation of the circumstances in which it should be considered.

Study on Temperature Distribution of Pebble-Bed HTR Fuel Element by Using Boundary Element Method

Spherical fuel elements with a diameter of 60mm are basic units of the nuclear fuel for the pebble-bed high temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTR). Each fuel element is treated as a graphite matrix containing around 10,000 randomly distributed fuel particles. The essential safety concept of the pebble-bed HTR is based on the objective that maximum temperature of the fuel particles does not exceed the design value. In this paper, a microstructure-based boundary element model is proposed for the large-scale thermal analysis of a spherical fuel element. This model presents detailed structural information of a large number of coated fuel particles dispersed in a spherical graphite matrix in order that temperature distributions at the level of fuel particles can be evaluated. The model is meshed with boundary elements in conjunction with the fast multipole method (FMM) in order that such large-scale computation is performed only in a personal desktop computer. Taking advantage of the fact that fuel particles are of the same shape, a similar sub-domain approach is used to establish the temperature translation mechanism between various layers of each fuel particle and to simplify the associated boundary element formulation. The numerical results demonstrate large-scale capacity of the proposed method for the multi-level temperature evaluation of the pebble-bed HTR fuel elements.

Long Term Performance of PE4710 Materials in Disinfectant Treated Nuclear Raw Water Systems

Degradation of service water systems is a major issue facing nuclear power plants and many plants will require repair or replacement of existing carbon steel piping components. High-density polyethylene (HDPE) has been used in non-safety service water systems for over ten years and has demonstrated superior performance. However, there still exist knowledge gaps around material properties, inspectability, and long-term performance. Specifically, there is a lack of insight on the aging of HDPE piping in disinfectant treated service water systems. This paper summarizes the methodology and results of predicting the expected life time of HDPE piping exposed to oxidizing biocides in numerous end-use scenarios. The aging mechanism of concern is Stage III Chemical-Mechanical degradation, where the polymer is oxidized by biocides and then experiences slow crack growth (SCG). An Aging Model is used to provide general predictions of pipe service life. The results were analyzed for trends and limiting or sensitive operating parameters were identified. For most applications, the specific resin used in the model demonstrated good performance for lifetimes of well over 40 years.

Master Curve and J-R Fracture Toughness of SA508/SA533-B-1 Weld and HAZ

A large heat of low-alloy steel that met both specifications for SA508 Grade 3 Class1 forging steel and SA533 Type B Class 1 plate steel (A508/A533) was procured and used to fabricate a submerged-arc weldment for potential application in high temperature gas-cooled reactors. Compact specimens, 1TC(T), were machined from the weld metal and from the heat-affected-zone (HAZ) of the weldment. Tests of both materials were performed to obtain the fracture toughness reference temperature, To, using the Master Curve procedure of ASTM E-1921, and J-R curves to evaluate material behavior at various threshold temperatures in Code Case N-499-2 (2001) of the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code. Tests were performed at various temperatures up to 593°C. Unloading compliance was the primary technique used, although dc-potential drop was also monitored during the tests, and the normalization procedure of E1820 was used to compare the results from each procedure. Moreover, many tests at the highest temperatures were performed with no unloading and the normalization procedure provided in E1820 was used to analyze the load-displacement measurements. The fracture toughness for the HAZ is superior to that of the weld metal both in terms of transition temperature and ductile fracture toughness.

Analysing the Notch Effect Within the Ductile-to-Brittle Transition Zone of S275JR Steel

This paper analyses the notch effect in ferritic-pearlitic steel S275JR in a range of temperatures within the material Ductile-to-Brittle Transition Zone (DBTZ). The notch effect is evaluated in terms of load-bearing capacity, apparent fracture toughness (modeled here using the Theory of Critical Distances) and fracture micromechanisms. The concept of Master Curve in notched conditions is also presented. To this end, experimental results obtained in S275JR notched specimens are presented, together with Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) fractographies. The analysis is performed at −50 °C, −30 °C and −10 °C, the material Transition Temperature (T0) being −26.1 °C, with the notch radii ranging from 0 mm (crack-type defects) up to 2.0 mm. The results show how the lower the temperature the larger the notch effect, and also that the evolution of both the load bearing capacity and the apparent fracture toughness is directly related to the evolution of fracture micromechanisms. Moreover, the proposed Master Curve in notched conditions has provided good predictions of the experimental results.

Capacity Analysis of PE Pipeline With Non-Planar Defect

A tensile test of buried PE pipe is designed to test the mechanical performance. Then the constitutive model for the PE pipe can be established. The limit load of the PE pipe with local thinning defect can be studied with the method of combining the orthogonal design of experiment and finite element analysis. Then the factors of local thinning defect pipe limit load factors can be analyzed. The results show that the depth of the defect has a great effect on the limit load (internal pressure and bending moment) of PE pipe. The effects that the axial length of the defect and the circumferential length of the defect have on the limit load are not significant.

Simple Benchmark Problems for Finite Element Weld Residual Stress Simulation

Finite element methods are used increasingly to predict weld residual stresses. This is a relatively complex use of the finite element method, and it is important that its practitioners are able to demonstrate their ability to produce accurate predictions. Extensively characterised benchmark problems are a vital tool in achieving this. However, existing benchmarks are relatively complex and not suitable for analysis by novice weld modellers. This paper describes two benchmarks based upon a simple beam specimen with a single autogenous weld bead laid along its top edge. This geometry may be analysed using either 3D or 2D FE models and employing either block-dumped or moving heat source techniques. The first, simpler, benchmark is manufactured from AISI 316 steel, which does not undergo solid state phase transformation, while the second, more complex, benchmark is manufactured from SA508 Cl 3 steel, which undergoes solid state phase transformation during welding. A number of such beams were manufactured using an automated TIG process, and instrumented with thermocouples and strain gauges to record the transient temperature and strain response during welding. The resulting residual stresses were measured using diverse techniques, and showed markedly different distributions in the austenitic and ferritic beams. The paper presents the information necessary to perform and validate finite element weld residual stress simulations in both the simple austenitic beam and the more complex ferritic beam, and provides performance measures for the austenitic beam problem.

The Effect of Microstructure on the Hydrogen-Assisted Fatigue of Pipeline Steels

Tests on the fatigue crack growth rate were conducted on four pipeline steels, two of grade API 5L-X52 and two API 5L-X70. One X52 material was manufactured in the mid-1960s and the other was manufactured in 2011. The two X70 materials had a similar vintage and chemistry, but the microstructure differs. The fatigue tests were performed in 5.5 and 34 MPa pressurized hydrogen gas, at 1 Hz and (load ratio) R = 0.5. At high pressures of hydrogen and high values of the stress intensity factor range (ΔK) there is no difference in the fatigue crack growth rates (da/dN), regardless of strength or microstructure. At low values of ΔK, however, significant differences in the da/dN are observed. The older X52 material has a ferrite-pearlite microstructure; whereas, the modern X52 has a mixture of polygonal and acicular ferrites. The X70 materials are both predominantly polygonal ferrite, but one has small amounts (∼5%) of upper bainite, and the other has small amounts of pearlite (<2%) and acicular ferrite (∼5%). We discuss the fatigue test results with respect to the different microstructures, with particular emphasis on the low ΔK regime.