Prevention of brittle fracture in pressure vessels: A review of the design rules of EN 13445 Annex B and BSI PD 5500 Appendix D

摘要

The selection of materials with appropriate levels of toughness is critical for the avoidance of brittle fracture in ferritic steel pressure vessels and is usually achieved by specifying a test temperature at which the material's Charpy energy meets a certain energy criterion, typically 27 J (T-27J) or 40 J (T-40J). This paper traces the history of the toughness requirements in two pressure vessel codes the European pressure vessel standard EN 13445-2 and the UK legacy code PD 5500 (previously BS 5500), which was one of several national standards that influenced the development of EN 13445-2. Since publication of Issue 1 of EN 13445-2 in 2002, the toughness requirements for certain categories of European pressure vessels (in particular, those made from lower-strength steels in the as-welded condition) have been relaxed considerably, leaving a substantial disparity (which can be more than 60 degrees C) in Charpy test temperature requirements (T-27J) between PD 5500 and EN 13445:2014.