Current line-pipe steels have significantly higher Charpy upper-shelf energy than older steels. Many newer line-pipe steels have Charpy upper-shelf energy in the 300 to 500J range, while older line-pipe steels (pre-1970) had values between 30 and 60J. With this increased Charpy energy comes two different and important aspects of how to predict the brittle fracture arrestability for these new line-pipe steels. The first aspect of concern is that the very high Charpy energy in modern line-pipe steels frequently produces invalid results in the standard pressed-notch DWTT specimen. Various modified DWTT specimens have been used in an attempt to address the deficiencies seen in the PN-DWTT procedure. In examining fracture surfaces of various modified DWTT samples, it has been found that using the steady-state fracture regions with similitude to pipe burst test (regions with constant shear lips) rather than the entire API fracture area, results collapse to one shear area versus temperature curve for all the various DWTT specimens tested. Results for several different materials will be shown. The difficulty with this fracture surface evaluation is that frequently the standard pressed-notch DWTT only gives valid transitional fracture data up to about 20-percent shear area, and then suddenly goes to 100-percent shear area. The second aspect is that with the much higher Charpy energy, the pipe does not need as much shear area to arrest a brittle fracture. Some analyses of past pipe burst tests have been recently shown and some additional cases will be presented. This new brittle fracture arrest criterion means that one does not necessarily have to specify 85-percent shear area in the DWTT all the time, but the shear area needed for brittle fracture arrest depends on the pipeline design conditions (diameter, hoop stress) and the Charpy upper-shelf energy of the steel. Sensitivity studies and examples will be shown.
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