Proceedings of the 2012 9th International Pipeline Conference IPC2012 September 24-28, 2012, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

IPC2012-90081
FATIGUE LIFE ASSESSMENT FOR NPS30 STEEL PIPE

Jorge Silva University of Windsor Windsor, Ontario, Canada

Hossein Ghaednia University of Windsor Windsor, Ontario, Canada

Sreekanta Das University of Windsor Windsor, Ontario, Canada

ABSTRACT Pipeline is the common mode for transporting oil, gas, and various petroleum products. Aging and corrosive environment may lead to formation of various defects such as crack, dent, gouge, and corrosion. The performance evaluation of field pipelines with crack defect is important. Accurate assessment of crack depth and remaining fatigue life of pipelines with crack defect is vital for pipelines structural integrity, inspection interval, management, and maintenance. An experimental based research work was completed at the University of Windsor for developing a semi-empirical model for estimating the remaining fatigue life of oil and gas pipes when a longitudinal crack defect has formed. A statistical approach in conjunction with fracture mechanics was used to develop this model. Statistical analysis was undertaken on CT specimen data to develop this fatigue life assessment model. Finite element method was used for determining the stress intensity factor. The fatigue life assessment model was then validated using fullscale fatigue test data obtained from 762 mm (30 inch) diameter X65 pipe. This paper discusses the test specimens and test data obtained from this study. Development and validation of the fatigue life assessment model is also presented in this paper. INTRODUCTION Fatigue crack is a serious concern for the oil and gas pipeline industry and hence, there is strong interest in quantifying fatigue damage of pipelines when a crack forms. Because flaws cannot be ruled out and the risk of catastrophic failure such as bursting at a crack location exists, damage tolerance becomes a valuable tool. Damage tolerance is defined as the ability of the structure to sustain damage in the form of cracks without catastrophic consequences, until the damaged component can be repaired1. With the aid of fracture mechanics various investigations have been undertaken to estimate fatigue life of steel pipes2, 3,4,5. However, much of the existing literature only involves pipes with circumferential cracks or notches. Thus, the longitudinal crack which is regarded as being more

critical has not been studied as thoroughly. I n regards to circumferential cracks and notches, researchers have tested pipes with four-point bending cyclic load to simulate cyclic stresses which develop from fluctuations in field line pipes. These studies have introduced circumferential notch to create stress concentration at predetermined locations to ensure fatigue crack growth through the pipe wall at that position. Fatigue crack growth is defined as the weakening or breakdown of a material subjected to cyclic stresses such as pressure variations which oil and gas pipelines must endure in the field. At the time the current study was undertaken there was a lack of studies concerned with the estimate of fatigue crack growth in oil and gas pipelines with longitudinal crack. This is despite the longitudinal crack being deemed to be more critical than a circumferential crack since the longitudinal crack is believed to cause bursting whereas, the circumferential crack is associated to leaking. Although, it must stated the oil industry6 makes use of widely accepted methods such as those provided in BS 79107 and API 5798 to assess the fatigue life of longitudinal cracks in pressurized pipes. However, limitations exist. With reference to stress intensity factor solutions, API 579 assumes a simple geometry which is intended to be more severe than the actual crack shape. Although crack shape can be difficult to predict, incorrect flaw assumptions lead to large error9. Moreover, although stress intensity factor solutions exist for pipes and thin walled cylinders, they apply to specific aspect ratios, and wallthickness-to-radius ratios10. If confronted with a wall-thicknessto-radius ratio falling outside the boundaries it is possible to use a flat plate solution multiplied by a bulging factor. This approach tends to arrive at conservative estimates10. This can be significant considering the power law nature of the Paris equation. Additionally, fatigue life estimation methods such as that provided by API 579 present Paris equation constants. Although these values can be useful, it can be argued that experimentally obtained material constants are preferred. In this study a statistical approach was used in conjunction with fracture mechanics for determining the fatigue life of oil

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and gas pipelines that have developed crack in the longitudinal direction of the line pipe. NOMENCLATURE a Crack depth Geometry factor C Paris equation material constant da/dN Crack growth rate K Stress intensity factor range Stress range m Paris equation material constant N Number of cycles W Width of CT specimen EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE Full-scale specimen The full-scale test consisted of one 762 mm diameter (30 inch) API 5L X6511 grade steel pipe as shown in Figure 1. The full-scale specimen was 1.6 m long and pipe wall thickness was 8.5 mm (0.33 inch). The end supports for the pipe specimen consisted of a pin and a roller. The pipe specimen was also supported at its mid-length (Figure 1). The middle support was a raised thick steel platform. Cyclic loads were applied on the outer surface of the pipe using a 500 kN fatigue load actuator. Applied load ranged from 50 kN to 100 kN. Full-scale test was performed in displacement control as it was considered to be the safest. Cyclic loads through the actuator were applied until a through-wall crack developed. Full-scale test was undertaken in the structural engineering lab at room temperature. An electrical discharge machining notch was made on the outer surface of the full-scale specimen. This notch was oriented in the longitudinal direction to ensure crack formation in the longitudinal direction of the pipe. The depth of the notch was approximately 3.8 mm throughout its length of 100 mm. The purpose of the notch was to create a stress concentration to achieve a fatigue crack at that location. The notch was created away from welds of the pipe to avoid any effect of heat-induced residual stresses on the fatigue induced crack growth. Since this study was carried out to investigate the fatigue behaviour of field line pipes under cyclic pressure load, the boundary conditions were chosen to best simulate the field conditions of a line pipe.

CT SPECIMENS A total of nine compact tension (CT) specimens was prepared and tested to estimate the constants, C and m, of Paris equation (Equation 1). Figure 2 shows a typical CT specimen being tested in a fatigue load frame. All CT specimen tests were conducted as per ASTM E64712. CT specimens were cut from the same pipe as the full-scale specimen was made from. Crack length of CT specimens was monitored using a digital microscope and all tests were conducted at room temperature.
da dN

= C K

(1)

Figure 2: CT specimen test set up TEST RESULTS CT specimen data Test data of CT specimens were used to determine realistic and statistically meaningful values of the constants, C and m of Paris equation. Figure 3 shows a plot of crack length measured from the notch tip of a CT specimen versus number of applied load cycles for specimen CT5.
CT5 Crack length from notch (mm) 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 0 200 400 600 y = 0.015000e0.000012N R = 0.946

Number of cycles (in thousands)

Figure 3: Crack length vs. number of cycles for CT5 Figure 1: Schematic of full-scale test setup

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The test data obtained from CT specimens showed some scatter and hence, these test data were not directly used in the fatigue analysis. Figure 3 also shows that an exponential relationship of the trendline for CT specimen CT5 closely fits the actual test data. Similar fit of test data using exponential function was observed for all CT specimens in this study. This exponential relationship has been observed by other researchers13 as well. Hence, in this study, this exponential function was used in developing the statistical method based approach for determining the constants C and m for that specimen. The crack growth rate (da/dN) versus stress intensity factor range (K) plot of specimen CT5 is shown in Figure 4. Since CT tests were conducted as per ASTM E647 the stress intensity factor was calculated using the solution provided in this standard. The linear region (region II) of the crack growth curve was used to calculate factors C and m. Region I was not captured in this study. Therefore, for specimen CT5 the value of C was found to be 2.4410-10 and the value of m was found to be 4.14
0.001 1 10 100

Table 1: Values of constants obtained from CT specimens C 4.0110-8 4.8210-10 4.8710-10 8.6910-10 2.4410-10 8.7810-10 4.1810-9 1.0910-8 6.7610-10 m 2.56 4.00 3.86 3.65 4.14 3.63 3.17 2.76 3.9 a = debN Specimen name CT1 CT2 CT3 CT4 CT5 CT6 CT7 CT8 CT9

(2)

where, d and b are constants. For example, in Figure 3 the value of constant d is 0.015 and value of the other constant b is 0.000012. Hence, it can be said that the relationship between the number of cycles (N) and crack growth rate (da/dN) is exponential as in Equation 3.
da dN

= dbebN

(3)

da/dN (mm/cycle)

0.0001

y = 0.000000000244(K)4.14 R = 0.983 III

Equation 3 can be written in a linear form as follows.

da dN

ln
II

= ln dbebN = ln db +bN

(4a) (4b)

ln
I 0.00001 K(MPa m0.5)

da dN

Figure 4: Linear portion of CT5 Values of C and m obtained in such way from all the CT specimens using the exponential fit of test data as shown in Figure 4 exhibited a wide scatter (see Table 1). However, an appropriate choice of values for C and m is important when applying Paris equation for estimating the fatigue life. Since these values exhibited large scatter, a statistical method based procedure was developed for determining statistically meaningful values of C and m for all specimens. All the test data from CT specimens showed an exponential relationship between crack length (a) and number of cycles (N) and hence, this relationship can be represented by Equation 2 (please see Figure 3 for example).

Here ln(db), and b are constants. Hence, the only variable on the right hand side of Equation 4b is the number of load cycles (N). Therefore, it can be said that if the parameter N is da normally distributed then ln is also normally distributed. dN The number of cycles (N) needed to reach a certain K was of interest since the Paris equation applies to the linear region (region II) of the crack growth rate plot. In this study, values of K at the beginning and at the end of the observed linear region (region II) were analyzed. The number of cycles (N) needed to reach these values of K for all the CT specimens was investigated and found to be normally distributed. With this conclusion it can be helpful to view the Paris equation in a different fashion. The Paris equation is commonly expressed as shown in Equation 1. This equation can be expressed as a linear relationship by taking the natural log on

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both sides as shown in Equation 5. In this equation, ln

da dN

and ln(K) are the variables and hence, C and m are constants.
da dN

ln

= m ln K + ln C

(5)

Since ln was previously found to be normally dN distributed it can be concluded that Equation 5 is normally distributed where m and C are two constants. Therefore, linear regression analysis was applied to Equation 5 to calculate representative values of these two constants of Paris equation (Equation 1). Equation 6 explains the approach taken for probabilistic analysis of the experimental data obtained from the CT specimens. A certain cumulative probability was chosen (G in Equation 6) and the value of ln(da/dN) (that is, H) was found corresponding to a certain value of K .
da dN

da

Linear analysis was then repeated for cumulative probabilities (G) of 50% and 95%. Table 2 lists the values of C and m for all three cumulative probabilities. It is important to note that the higher the cumulative probability (G) is, the more conservative the estimate of fatigue life is. This is because using a higher cumulative probability (G) in Equation 6 requires a value of H that includes more specimens. In other words, a higher crack growth rate is required to cover 95% of specimens as opposed to only 5% of specimens. Table 2: Constants obtained from statistical model Cumulative probability (G) 5% 50% 95% C 2.3510-10 1.0410-9 4.6510-9 m 4.05 3.68 3.31

P ln

H =G

(6)

The physical meaning of the cumulative probability G is explained next. For example, for a cumulative probability (G) of 5% and K value of 15 MPa m, it can be said that there is a 5% cumulative probability that the natural logarithm of crack da growth rate ( ln ) is equal to or less than H when K has a
dN

Figure 6 shows the fatigue life estimates of specimen CT1 for 5%, 50% and 95% cumulative probabilities. It should be noted that the line corresponding to 95% cumulative probability was above all other lines. Therefore, 95% cumulative probability provided the most conservative fatigue life estimate. The plot also shows the experimental data and it can be found that all test data lies within the range estimated by the method proposed by this study. Since reasonably good results were obtained for estimates of crack length at specific load cycles of CT specimens, the Paris equation constants calculated through the statistical model presented in this paper were chosen for determining the crack growth and fatigue life of the full-scale pipe specimen.
CT1 16 Crack length from notch (mm) 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 300 350 400 Number of cycles (in thousands) CTC1 (test) 450 50% 5% 95%

value of 15 MPa m. In other words, 5% of specimens have a crack growth rate of eH or less if K is equal to 15 MPa m. da The relationship between ln(K) and ln for 5% dN cumulative probability (G) is shown in Figure 5. It should be da noted that ln(K) and ln are the variables in Equation 5. dN The Y-axis intercept in Figure 5 was found to be -22.174 which is ln C in Equation 5. Hence, the value of C was calculated at 2.3210-10. Slope of the line in Figure 5 is 4.05 and hence, the value of m was found to be 4.05.
Cumulative probability of 5% 2.7 2.8 2.9 Y = 4.05X - 22.174 R = 0.996 3

-10 -10.2 2.6 -10.4 ln(da/dN) -10.6 -10.8 -11 -11.2 -11.4

Figure 6: Fatigue crack length estimates for CT1 FINITE ELEMENT MODEL A finite-element model (Figure 7) was developed to determine the stress intensity factor (K) for the full-scale pipe

ln(K)

Figure 5: Regression of crack growth data

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specimen. The objective was to use this stress intensity factor along with the Paris equation to be able to accurately estimate the fatigue life of the full-scale pipe specimen. This test pipe specimen had a 100 mm long and 3.8 mm deep notch oriented in the longitudinal direction of the pipe. Hence, as fatigue load was applied to this test specimen, cracks initiated at the tip of the notch and grew through the thickness of the pipe wall. Only half of the pipe was modeled since the pipe was symmetric about its mid span. The model was created to closely reflect the experimental setup. First order solid elements were used to simulate the pipe wall to minimize solution time. Six elements were used through the wall thickness. This element has eight nodes and uses linear formulation. Elements surrounding the notch were four-node linear tetrahedron solid elements. These elements were smallest in size close to the notch to simulate proper distributions of the stress concentration at and near the notch tip. Both the actuator and the support were modeled as discrete rigid as they were assumed not to deform.

da dN

= 2.35 1010
a W

1.43 1300.8
4.05

a 2 W

(9)

1162.8

+ 322.92

FULL-SCALE PIPE SPECIMEN RESULTS The notch depth was 3.8 mm and pipe wall thickness was 8.5 mm. Because a notch was used, a fatigue crack was assumed to immediately begin or soon after fatigue load cycles began on the test pipe specimen. Using the liquid penetrant inspection method, a through wall fatigue crack was detected at 370,000 cycles on the full-scale pipe specimen. The proposed model (Equation 9) estimated the fatigue life of this pipe specimen at 312,000 cycles. Hence, the error in life prediction was approximately 15%. However, further validation of the model is required as only one full-scale test was completed. CONCLUSIONS The main objective of this research was to develop a model that is able to accurately estimate fatigue life of a full-scale pipe specimen that has developed a longitudinal crack and subjected to load cycles. In doing so, a fracture mechanics approach was adopted. Based on the work completed the following conclusions were made. These findings apply only to the specimens used in the current study. Further studies on different pipes are required to make this model general. 1. A statistics based method was developed to estimate Paris equation constants, C and m, after performing fatigue tests on CT specimens as per ASTM E647 for steel used in oil and gas pipelines. This statistical method was developed to estimate representative values of C and m which were then used to develop a model for estimating fatigue crack growth rate (da/dN) and fatigue life of the full-scale pipe specimen. This is a possible advantage over using C and m values provided by methods such as that in API 579. The present approach uses material test data and can easily be adjusted to different levels of conservatism. 2. A fatigue crack growth formula in the form of the Paris equation was developed with the aid of the statistical model and a finite element model. The statistical method provided the values of C and m and the finite element model provided the stress intensity factor (K). The fatigue crack growth model developed in this study is as shown in Equation 9. 3. The number of cycles for the full-scale specimen to develop a through-wall crack was found to be 370,000 cycles. The number of cycles estimated by the model was 312,000. Hence, the fatigue crack growth model yielded an error of 15%.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Top collar and actuator

Support Figure 7: Finite element model The stress intensity factor is expressed as follows.

K = a

(7)

The following relationship for was obtained from the finite element analysis.
2

= 1300.8

a W

1162.8

a W

+ 322.92

(8)

Next, the final form of the crack growth rate for the fullscale pipe specimen using Paris equation was developed as shown in Equation 9. The values of C and m for 5% cumulative probability were used in Equation 9. This is because the test data of most CT specimens was closest to the fatigue estimates corresponding to the values of C and m obtained from 5% cumulative probability.

This work was completed with the financial assistance of NSERC.

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REFERENCES

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