Fracture Toughness Testing for Improving the Safety of Gas Pipelines

摘要

For standard fracture mechanical tests flat specimens (principally CT or SENB) are required. When investigating fracture mechanical properties of thin – walled pipes this brings about a problem because it is necessary to straighten pipe bands. However, this operation causes internal stresses to be induced not only in the semi-product subjected to straightening but also in finished specimens. A question therefore arises to what extent are then the magnitudes of the fracture toughness determined representative for the actual cylindrical wall. To solve this problem fracture mechanics tests were caried out on flat (straightened) CT specimens as well as on curved CT specimens with the natural curvature. The R – curves as well as the resulting parameters of the fracture toughness, obtained for both types of CT specimens, were compared and it was concluded that the fracture toughness of the pipe material determined on straightened CT specimens was practically the same as that obtained on curved CT specimens.