The determination of the stress intensity factor solutions for the new pipe-ring specimen using FEA

For safe transport and reliable supply of petrochemical substances, it is crucial to ensure the structural integrity of the equipment, pipelines in particular. Regarding the large diameters and high mass per distance, pipelines for natural gas are designed as thin-walled cylindrical structures. To ensure the structural integrity of the unknown material means to measure and therefore empirically test the material fracture properties of the laboratory specimen for giving an assessment of the accepted defect size. Compared to standards and regulations, such as the ASTM E-1820, BS 7448 standards and the GKSS procedure, the production of standard specimens for measuring the fracture toughness is commonly very difficult or even impossible for applications. On the basis of the Slovenian-Russian bilateral project, we investigate and propose a solution for this issue with a new kind of specimen, called the pipe-ring specimen. The specimens were made from a segment of the observed thin-walled pipeline from the construction filed or stored in a warehouse. The measurement procedure is similar as for the standard SENB specimens and extensometer because of the geometry of the specimen, which is cut from the pipe and contains only a machine-made notch. The next step is to test specimens axially on the three-point bending load test on the hydraulic machine. Because the ring as the specimen is not standardized, it is necessary to show and prove how, and if it is possible to use ring specimens as an alternative option to the standard specimens for testing and determining fracture properties of testing material for thin-walled pipelines. In the frame of the three main experimental, analytical and numerical approaches, this publication shows the numerical approach of defining the stress intensity factor (SIF) for crack opening mode I with and without prior fatigue pre-cracking. Besides the limit load, the SIF presents one of two main parameters for developing the failure assessment diagram and estimating the possible accepted defects in a material relating to its' structural integrity.