Transferability of critical condition for ductile cracking in bent small scale specimen to evaluation of critical internal pressure for ductile cracking in axially notched linepipe

For two types of API 5L X65 linepipes, the critical conditions for ductile cracking of the linepipe steel and their applicability to the evaluation of the ductile cracking of an axially notched linepipe were investigated. Static three point bending tests and finite element (FE) analyses for a Charpy V notch specimen were conducted to evaluate the critical conditions for ductile cracking from the notch tip. At the position of ductile cracking for the Charpy specimen, the calculated stress triaxiality was almost constant for both linepipe steels; however, the equivalent plastic strain for each linepipe steel was different. Hydrostatic burst tests were then conducted for internally patched linepipes with an axial through wall notch. The results of FE analyses for the hydrostatic burst tests indicated that the maximum equivalent plastic strain value within the wall thickness was almost the same as that obtained from the three point bending test in the Charpy V notch specimen. It was therefore ascertained that the critical conditions for ductile cracking of linepipes with an actual notch can be predicted from the results of a small scale test and FE analysis, which are used to evaluate the relationship between the stress triaxiality and the equivalent plastic strain.