COMPARISON OF FRACTURE MODELS TO QUANTIFY THE EFFECTS OF MATERIAL PLASTICITY ON THE DUCTILE FRACTURE PROPAGATION IN PIPELINES

Various numerical approaches have been developed in the last years aimed to simulate the ductile fracture propagation in pipelines transporting CO2 or natural gas. However, a reliable quantification of the influence of material plasticity on the fracture resistance is still missing. Therefore, more accurate description of the material plasticity on the ductile fracture propagation is required based on a suitable numerical methodology. In this study, different plasticity and fracture models are compared regarding the ductile fracture propagation in X100 pipeline steel with the objective to quantify the influence of plasticity parameters on the fracture resistance. The plastic behavior of the investigated material is considered by the quadratic yield surface in conjunction with a non-associated quadratic plastic flow potential. The strain hardening can be appropriately described by the mixed Swift-Voce law. The simulations of ductile fracture are conducted by an uncoupled, modified Mohr-Coulomb- (MMC) and the micromechanically based Gurson-Tvergaard-Needleman (GTN) models. In contract to the original GTN model, the MMC model is capable of describing ductile failure over wide range of stress states. Thus, ductile fracture resistance can be estimated for various load and fracture scenarios. Both models are used for the simulation of fracture propagation in DWTT and 3D pressurized pipe sections. The results from the present work can serve as a basis for establishing the correlation between plasticity parameters and ductile fracture propagation.