High Charpy Energy Research Articles

Experimental study of the relationship between fracture initiation toughness and brittle crack arrest toughness predicted from small-scale testing

It is vital to prevent brittle cracks in large structures. This is particularly important for a number of industry sectors including offshore wind, Oil & Gas, and shipbuilding where structural failure risks loss of human life and loss of expensive assets. Some modern steels exhibit high Charpy energy – i.e. high initiation fracture toughness, but poor resistance to crack propagation – i.e. low crack arrest toughness. The correlation between initiation and arrest toughness measured through small-scale testing is investigated in five different steels, which include S355 structural steel (with two different thicknesses), X65 pipeline steel, two high strength reactor pressure vessel steels and EH47 shipbuilding steel. Small scale mechanical tests were carried out to characterise the materials’ properties and were compared to the materials’ microstructures. A wide range of tests were carried out, including instrumented Charpy, drop weight Pellini, fracture toughness, tensile testing, and optical microscopy. Nil ductility transition temperature (NDTT) is used to characterise a material’s arrest properties. Initiation fracture toughness correlated with higher upper shelf Charpy energy and smaller average grain sizes, as expected, however none of these correlated well with the arrest toughness measured through NDTT. The NDTT correlated most strongly with the T27J temperature which indicates the start of lower shelf of the Charpy curve. This correlation held for all materials including those where the NDTT lies on the upper shelf of the Charpy curve. While initiation fracture toughness can be predicted through high Charpy toughness and operation temperatures on the upper shelf, crack arrest behaviour should be predicted from characteristics of the ductile to brittle transition temperature, for example by using the T4kN from instrumented Charpy tests or T27J.

Evaluation of Pre-strain Effect on Abnormal Fracture Occurrence in Drop-Weight Tear Test for Linepipe Steel with High Charpy Energy

Brittle fracture control is one of the most important subjects in natural gas transmission pipeline in order to maintain structural integrity over several decades. The Drop Weight Tear Test (DWTT) is widely used as the test method to evaluate the resistance against the brittle fracture for linepipe steels. However, an abnormal fracture frequently occurs during the DWTT in recent high toughness line pipe steels. The abnormal fracture is also known as inverse fracture. The abnormal fracture is defined as the cleavage fracture is observed at the hammer side in DWTT specimen although the ductile fracture firstly initiates from the notch tip side. Many studies for abnormal fracture appearance/behavior have been carried out in order to clarify the mechanism of the abnormal fracture occurrence and to ensure the prevention of long brittle fracture propagation for pipelines.In this study, a compressive pre-straining at the impact hammer side in the DWTT specimen was evaluated under quasi-static load conditions. The specimen’s surfaces were electrolytically-etched to print circle patterns with 5 mm in diameter in order to measure plastic strain. Charpy impact specimens were taken from the quasi-static loaded and unloaded DWTT specimen to measure the possible influence of pre-straining on toughness. The impact test results show that more than 2 % of the compressive pre-strain gave 7 to 10 % decrease of the Charpy upper-shelf energy. The effect of pre-straining on tensile property was also evaluated. These present experiments indicate that the occurrence of abnormal fracture near the hammer side can be attributed to the compressive pre-straining. Furthermore, the chevron-notched and the pre-cracked DWTTs and the partial gas burst test were conducted in order to compare the brittle-to-ductile transition temperature. Based on these experiments, the effect of notch configuration on the brittle-to-ductile transition temperature and the correlation between DWTTs and pipe test were discussed. In addition, the relationship between the pre-straining and the abnormal fracture appearance was considered.

Modified Equation To Predict Leak/Rupture Criteria For Axially Through-Wall Notched X80 and X100 Linepipes Having a Higher Charpy Energy

A method of predicting the leak/rupture criteria for API 5L X80 and X100 line pipes was evaluated based on the results of hydrostatic full-scale tests for X60, X65, X80, and X100 line pipes with an axially through-wall (TW) notch. The TW notch test results defined the leak/rupture criteria, that is, the relationship between the initial notch lengths and the maximum hoop stresses during the TW notch tests. The defined leak/rupture criteria were then compared to the prediction of the Charpy V-notch (CVN) absorbed energy-based equation, which has been proposed by Kiefner, Maxey et al. This comparison revealed that the CVN-based equation was not applicable to the pipes having both a CVN energy greater than 120 or 130 J and flow stress greater than the level of X65. In order to predict the leak/rupture criteria for these line pipes, the static absorbed energy for ductile cracking, (Cvs)i, was introduced as representing the fracture toughness of a pipe material. The (Cvs)i value was determined from the microscopic observation of the cut and polished Charpy V-notch specimens after static three-point bending tests. The CVN energy in the original CVN-based equation was replaced by an equivalent CVN energy, (Cv)eq, which was defined as follows: (Cv)eq=4.5(Cvs)i. The leak/rupture criteria for the X80 and X100 line pipes with higher CVN energies were reasonably predicted by the modified equation using the (Cvs)i value.