A procedure for determining the true stress-strain curve over a large range of strains using digital image correlation and finite element analysis

Fracture behavior of carbon steel pipe with local wall thinning subjected to bending load

Fracture behavior of straight pipe and elbow with local wall thinning

An experimental investigation of fracture response of aluminum 6061-T6 tubes under internal gaseous detonation loading has been carried out. The pressure load, with speeds exceeding 2 km/s, can be characterized as a pressure peak (ranging from 2 to 6 MPa) followed by an expansion wave. The unique combination of this particular traveling load and tube geometry produced fracture data not available before in the open literature. Experimental data of this type are useful for studying the fluid-structure-fracture interaction and various crack curving and branching phenomena, and also for validation for multi-physics and multi-scale modeling. 

Axial surface flaws were introduced to control the crack initiation site. Fracture threshold models were developed by combining a static fracture model and an extensively studied dynamic amplification factor for tubes under internal traveling loads. Experiments were also performed on hydrostatically loaded preflawed aluminum 6061-T6 tubes for comparison. Significantly different fracture behavior was observed and the difference was explained by fluid dynamics and energy considerations. The experiments yielded comparison on crack speeds, strain, and pressure histories. 

In other experiments, the specimens were also pre-torqued to control the propagation direction of the cracks. Measurements were made on the detonation velocity, strain history, blast pressure from the crack opening, and crack speeds. The curved crack paths were digitized. The Chapman-Jouguet pressure, initial axial flaw length, and torsion level were varied to obtain different crack patterns. The incipient crack kinking angle was found to be consistent with fracture under mixed-mode loading. High-speed movies of the fracture events and blast wave were taken and these were used in interpreting the quantitative data.

Numerical simulations were performed using the commercial explicit finite-element software LS-Dyna. The detonation wave was modeled as a traveling boundary load. Both non-fracturing linear elastic simulations and elastoplastic simulations with fracture were conducted on three-dimensional models. The simulated fracture was compared directly with an experiment with the same conditions. The overall qualitative fracture behavior was captured by the simulation. The forward and backward cracks were observed to branch in both the experiment and simulation.

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Gaseous Detonation-Driven Fracture of Tubes

Assessment of dropped object risk on corroded subsea pipeline

The ANSI/ASME B31G guideline has been useful to pipeline operators in assessing the integrity of corroded line pipe. Because large safety margins have had to be incorporated, the guidelines can be excessively conservative, which in turn can force costly repairs and replacements that may not actually be necessary. On the other hand, because the current guidelines consider only pressure loading and neglect bending and axial compression, they could give nonconservative failure predictions when combined loading exists. Therefore, a study was initiated to develop a theoretically sound methodology for assessing the integrity of corroded line pipe subjected to combined loading. A key step in the successful application of this methodology is the development of sophisticated three-dimensional finite element procedure that can accurately simulate full-scale pipe tests under conditions of combined loading. This paper describes thirteen full-scale failure tests on artificially corroded pipes subjected to simultaneous internal pressure, bending, and longitudinal compression and presents a detailed account of the finite element analysis procedure that was developed to simulate these tests numerically. Additional finite element analyses that were conducted to investigate the effect of key parameters on failure, and to expand the corroded pipe failure database, are also discussed.

M. F. Kanninen

Papers

Numerical Simulations of Full-Scale Corroded Pipe Tests With Combined Loading