Effect of Loading Rate and Pipe Wall Thickness on the Strength and Toughness of Welded and Unwelded Polyethylene Pipes

Abstract

Abstract The primary objective of this paper is to depict the mechanical behavior of welded and unwelded high-density polyethylene (HDPE), pipes to provide the designer with reliable design data relevant to practical applications. Therefore, it is necessary to study the effect of strain rate and specimen configuration on the mechanical behavior of welded and unwelded pipes made from HDPE. Tensile tests are conducted on specimens longitudinally cut from the pipe with thickness (10 and 30 mm), at different crosshead speeds (5–500 mm/min), and different gauge lengths (20, 25, and 50 mm) to investigate the mechanical properties of welded and unwelded specimens. All tests are performed at room temperature (Ta = 23 °C). Butt fusion, BF, welding method is used to join the different parts of HDPE pipes. The present results showed that the mechanical characteristics of welded specimens are lower than those of unwelded specimens. In the case of test specimens taken from unwelded pipe, the results of mechanical characteristics revealed that a necking phenomenon before failure appears at different locations along the gauge section. On the other hand, the fracture of welded specimens almost occurs at the fusion zone. It is found that the crosshead speed and specimen configurations have a significant effect on the mechanical behavior of both welded and unwelded specimens.