MODELLING OF DAMAGE BEHAVIOUR OF HIGH STRENGTH PIPELINE STEEL A. Nonn1), C.

Kalwa2) 1 Salzgitter Mannesmann Forschung GmbH, Ehinger Strae 200, 47259 Duisburg, Germany 2 EUROPIPE, Pilgerstr. 2, 45473 Mlheim an der Ruhr, Germany
ABSTRACT The worldwide growing importance of oil and gas transport has led to increasing application of high strength steels, e.g. X100, for pipelines. Although the development of the new high-strength steel grades has been recently intensified, detailed comprehension of fracture performance of high strength linepipe is still missing. Hence, outdated methods are used for the design against fracture resulting in insufficient utilization of material reserves. This paper aims to provide overall characterization of mechanical properties of X100 pipeline steel and to allow for more precise estimation of failure process by taking the microstructure into account. By conducting metallographic analyses, the microstructure of X100 has been characterized with objective to identify variables, e.g. size and distribution of voids, inclusions and precipitations relevant for damage process. Subsequently, these variables have been linked to damage parameters of the micromechanics-based GursonTvergaard-Needleman (henceforth GTN) model. This model adequately describes ductile failure for arbitrary crack and component geometry by incorporating the influence of local damage on the yielding behavior. However, it requires besides microstructural variables a quantification of additional parameters by performing tests on the round bar specimens with different notch geometry. The results from fracture mechanics tests on deep-notched SENB and SENT specimens serve the validation of GTN model with respect to accurate prediction of global load-deformation and crack resistance behavior. The transferability of the model parameters was demonstrated by means of results from tests on the shallownotched specimens and ring expansion tests. Additionally, the effect of microstructure modification on fracture behavior of flawed linepipes was studied and evaluated by varying microstructure-related parameters, e.g. initial porosity f0 and volume fraction of newly-nucleating voids fN. Based on the results obtained from damage modeling and parameter studies, recommendations have been derived for the modifications of X100 microstructure for purposes to improve toughness properties. KEYWORDS X100, damage, GTN, linepipe safety INTRODUCTION The increasing development of effective long-distance transportation methods for oil and gas requires the application of high strength alloy steels for pipelines. Compared to earlier projects, these high strength pipelines should sustain higher pressure levels but should at the same time retain similar dimensions due to economic reasons. Besides high strength, 1

the pipeline material should also exhibit outstanding toughness properties in order to meet structural integrity requirements and to guarantee good crack arrest behaviour. The problematic issue regarding characterisation and assessment of failure behaviour of pipelines arises from the use of too conservative toughness values obtained by standard fracture mechanics tests. In recent years some guidelines [1] recommend the use of alternative specimen type (e.g. single edged notched tension specimen (SENT)), which are able to capture the stress state at the crack tip in the pipelines more adequately. However, immense costs resulting from production and testing of the fracture mechanics specimens cannot be reduced by applying these alternative specimens. The numerical techniques for damage modelling represent one possibility to offer utilisable solutions for more effective pipeline design. The lately observed increasing demand for more physically related material models [2], [3] in the area of pipeline engineering can be explained by advantages resulting mainly from better comprehension of microstructure effect on the damage processes and transferability of the damage parameters from small scale to fullscale tests. With respect to these advantages, this paper focuses on both experimental and numerical investigations to characterise fracture behaviour of X100 pipeline steel. First part of the paper reports results from metallographic analyses to identify microstructural entities relevant for the damage process. These entities can be included in the widely used GTN (Gurson-Tvergaard-Needleman) model [4], [5] in terms of initial porosity f0, volume fraction of secondary voids fN and mesh size ly. The proposed damage parameter set is calibrated on the tensile test results obtained for notched round bar specimens. The crack resistance of X100 steel can be determined by fracture mechanics tests on SENB and SENT specimens with both deep and shallow notch configurations. Besides the analyses of the reduced constraint on the level of crack resistance, these tests also serve validation of applied damage model. Finally, transferability of damage parameter from quasi-static to dynamic tests is checked by means of drop weight tear test (DWTT) result. MATERIAL PROPERTIES Chemical composition and mechanical properties The present study focuses on high-strength X100 pipeline steel. The required material is extracted from the large diameter pipe manufactured from plate through the UOE forming process at Europipe. The pipe dimensions are given by an outer diameter of 48 and a wall thickness of 18.4mm. The chemical composition of the analysed steel is presented in Table 1.

Steel

Si

Mn

Al

X100 0.058 0.31

1.77 0.012 0.002 0.016 0.005

Other alloying elements: Ni, Mo, Nb and Ti Table 1: Chemical composition of X100, mass contents in %
The metallographic analyses performed by light optical microscopy reveal the microstructure of X100 material consisting of ferrite grains and bainitic bands, s. Fig. 1. The identified non-metallic inclusions with diameters >1m on polished unetched sample act as damage initiation sites, on which primary voids can nucleate at very low overall strains. Therefore, the volume fraction of large inclusions is directly linked to damage 2

parameter f0. The volume fraction of inclusions resulting from digital imaging analysis is determined to 1.5x10-4. The values for initial porosity obtained from studies on the same steel grade are in the range of 3x10-5 [3] and 1.35x10-4 [2]. Since the chemical composition of the non-metallic inclusions detected within large dimples includes elements such as Ca, Ti, Al, Mg, S, it can be concluded, that the large dimples or primary voids originate from non-metallic inclusions like CaS, TiN, MgO and Al2O3, s. Fig. 1. Besides formation of primary voids, ductile damage mechanism is also governed by nucleation of secondary voids around the particles with <1m occurring at larger strains. There are two major types of particles contributing to the nucleation of secondary voids, finest precipitated iron carbides Fe3C and M-A-constituents. The volume fractions of iron carbides and M-A-constituents can be estimated by performing colour tint etchings with sodium-picrat and according to Klemm [6].

20m Fig. 1: Ferritic-bainitic microstructure (left) and ductile fracture surface (right) of X100
All specimens required for investigations are sampled in transverse (T) direction near 12 oclock position. The longitudinal direction equal to rolling direction is marked with L and short transverse (thickness direction) with S. The fracture propagation occurs in case of dynamic loaded (Charpy and DWT) and fracture mechanics specimens in L and T direction, respectively. The mechanical properties in terms of yield and tensile strengths are determined by tensile tests on smooth round bar specimens with geometry defined by diameter D=8mm and gauge length of L=40mm, s. Table 2. The course of the resulting engineering stressstrain curves exhibits pronounced yield strength and wide range of Lders strain, which represent thermal ageing effects from a coating process after the pipe production.

20m

Steel X100

ReH ReL Rp0.2 Rm [MPa] [MPa] [MPa] [MPa] 801 746 756 757

Rp0.2/Rm [%] 100

A [%] 18

Table 2: Mechanical properties of X100 The upper shelf toughness obtained by Charpy impact testing is reached at T=-40 with C Av=256J and increases further to Av=284J at T=20 More significant than this increase C. in impact energy is the difference in fracture surface appearance between specimens tested at T=-40 C and T=20 C, s Fig. 2. In contrast to T=20 the fracture surface in C Charpy specimen tested at T=-40 C is characterised by brittle separations in L-T plane. As indicated in these separations may reduce crack growth resistance and should be taken into account when modelling damage process for X100.

T=-40 AV=256J C,

T=20 AV=284J C,

Separations

Fig. 2: Fracture surfaces of Charpy specimens tested at -40 C and 20 C Although the X100 steel exhibits anisotropic behaviour induced by forming process during pipe production no yield anisotropy is considered in the numerical model. In [2] the fracture behaviour of same steel grade X100 has been analysed by GTN model accounting for yield anisotropy. The results show that purely isotropic model can be used to describe material behaviour in one single direction, which is the case here.

EXPERIMENTAL AND NUMERICAL INVESTIGATIONS Tensile tests on the notched round bar specimens Tensile tests are performed on the notched round bar specimens with the objective to calibrate the remaining model parameters. The same type of specimens is used like in case for smooth round bar specimens with maximum diameter of 8mm and diameter in net section of 4mm. Different stress levels are induced by varying notch radii =0.2, 0.5 and 1.0mm. The longitudinal extension L is measured by the clip gauges with a length of L0=14mm. The fracture surface consists of the flat fracture and the slant or shear lip regions in the notch area, s. Fig. 3. Generally, the honeycomb structure of the fracture surface is characterised by several populations of voids of different sizes. Nevertheless, two major populations are evident, large (primary) voids with diameter >30m originating from inclusions and small (secondary) voids with diameter <1m nucleating from precipitations. The first type of population dominates the flat fracture and the latter the slant fracture region.
1mm segregation

flat fracture

shear lips

200m

200m

Fig. 3: Fracture surface of the notched round bar spacemen =0.2 mm The numerical analyses are carried out in Abaqus Explizit on 3D FE models representing a quarter of the specimen. The smallest element size defined in the notch ligament is 4

ly=0.2mm. Fig. 4 shows that a good agreement between numerical (fN=0.05) and experimental results can be achieved with respect to load vs. longitudinal elongation. In case of =0.2mm the crack initiation obtained numerically starts at the notch root and continues to propagate towards centre of specimen. Thereafter the second cracks initiates in the centre of the specimen to meet the crack coming from the notch. The location of the crack initiation in the notch area can be confirmed by SEM analysis of the longitudinal cut of the specimen, which has been unloaded shortly before the load drop occurs. As already reported in [7], the experimentally observed slant fracture cannot be reproduced numerically by standard GTN model. The modifications of the GTN model to account for shear failure are presented in [8]. By increasing notch radius from 0.2 to 0.5mm the damage process starts at notch root but prevails due to increasing triaxiality in the centre of the specimen leading to crack initiation. The same holds true for =1.0mm. The effect of the secondary voids on the crack initiation is analysed by increasing fN from 0.005 to 0.02 s. Fig. 4. Generally higher fN value causes the failure to occur at lower deformation level, the effect being most pronounced for the specimens with the sharpest notch. One explanation is that with increasing fN value the volume fraction on secondary voids is higher at some particular load level, which may grow faster due to higher triaxiality at the notch root when compared to softer notch geometries. For =0.5mm the triaxaility is high enough to promote the damage process at the notch root till the level of critical porosity fc but not sufficient to induce crack initiation, which again takes place in the centre of the specimen. These two competing damage processes at notch root and the centre of specimen increase the overall crack resistance. Thus, the deformation level at onset of failure is barely affected by higher fN value. The similar effects obtained by increasing secondary void volume fraction can also be observed by reducing N value.
1600 =0.2mm 1200 F/SN [MPa] =1.0mm 800 =0.5mm 400 fN=0.005 0 0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 L/L0 [%] 4.0 5.0
0 0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 L/L0 [%] 4.0 5.0 1200 F/SN [MPa] =1.0mm 800 =0.5mm fN=0.005 fN=0.02 1600 =0.2mm

400

Fig. 4: Comparison of experimental (symbols, round symbols for initiation) and simulated (lines) load extension for the notched tensile tests (left) and effect of fN (right) The proposed damage parameters resulting from previous analyses are summarised in Table 3:

Steel

f0

fn 0.005

n 0.3

sn 0.1

fc 0.02

4.0

q1 1.5

q2 1.0

ly [mm] 200

X100 1.5x10-4

Table 3: GTN damage parameters for X100

Fracture mechanics tests The main objectives of the fracture mechanics tests are: - Validation of the proposed parameters by test results on specimens (SENB and SENT) with deep notch configuration (a/W=0.5) - Verification and demonstration of transferability of damage model by estimating the fracture behaviour of corresponding shallow notched specimens (a/W=0.2) All fracture mechanics specimens are sampled in T-S direction, thus no appearance of separations is expected on the fracture surfaces. The experimental fracture resistance is derived by applying multi-specimen technique in accordance with [9]. The tests are performed on SENB and SENT specimens with dimensions 13x13[mm] and 15x15[mm] at room temperature. For determination of numerical fracture resistance, four 3D FE models of SENB and SENT specimen with a/W=0.5 and a/W=0.2 are created and calculated by applying GTN model with proposed parameters The experimental results show that the application of the shallow specimens with a/W=0.2 instead of a/W=0.5 results in the slight increase of fracture resistance due to reduction of constraint level, s. Fig. 5. This increase of fracture resistance level becomes higher for SENB and lower for SENT specimens with increasing crack propagation. By applying SENT instead of SENB specimens, the increase in fracture resistance corresponds approximately to the one obtained when reducing a/W crack ratio. In general, the range of fracture toughness values obtained by varying specimen type and crack ratio can be well reproduced by GTN damage model. The best agreement between numerical and experimental results is achieved for deep notched SENB with lowest and shallow notched SENT specimens with highest crack resistance. In contrast to experimental findings the increase in fracture resistance is more pronounced for different initial crack lengths than for different types of fracture mechanics specimens.
2.0 SENB,a/W=0.5,exp. SENB,a/W=0.5,GTN SENB,a/W=0.2,exp. SENB,a/W=0.2,GTN

2.0 SENT,a/W=0.5,exp. SENT,a/W=0.5,GTN SENT,a/W=0.2,exp. SENT,a/W=0.2,GTN

1.5 CTOD [mm]

1.5 CTOD [mm]

1.0

1.0

0.5

0.5

0.0 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 Crack growth a [mm] 1.2 1.4

0.0 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 Crack growth a [mm] 1.2 1.4

Fig. 5: Experimental and numerical CTOD-a curves for SENB and SENT specimens with botch notch configurations Drop weight tearing tests (DWTT) Regarding the improvement of fracture arrest criteria for high strength linepipes, the questions arises whether the dynamic crack propagation can be also described by damage parameters valid for quasi-static tests. Therefore, the numerical simulations of DWTT are conducted by applying GTN model and compared to the experimental results

from instrumented DWTT. The dimensions of full wall thickness test specimen are specified by height of 76mm and length of 254mm. The strain rate dependence required for the simulation of the DWTT is accounted for by defining the yield strength values as a function of different strain rate levels. In order to evaluate the effect resulting from strain rate dependence the additional simulation is performed with quasi-static flow curves. The results show that GTN model gives a reliable prediction of the load level vs. time when considering strain rate dependence, s. Fig. 6. The numerical simulation with static flow curve fails to reproduce the maximum load level with underestimation of ca. 20%. Parametric study will be performed to investigate effect of microstructure and geometry on steady-state propagation energy relevant for crack arrest predictions.

500 400 Load F [kN] 300 200 100 0 0.0E+00 Exp.1 Exp.2 GTN 2.0E-03 4.0E-03 Time [s] 6.0E-03 8.0E-03

Fig. 6: Experimental and numerical load-time curves for DWTT SUMMARY The fracture behaviour of high-strength pipeline steel X100 is analysed both experimentally by performing different types of specimens and numerically by applying GTN damage mechanics approach. The picture emerging from present study is the following: The microstructural quantities, volume fraction of large inclusions and of iron carbides govern the ductile damage process for X100 and can be directly related to damage model parameters, initial porosity f0 and volume fraction of secondary voids fN. The necessity to introduce fN parameter is demonstrated by tensile tests results for notched round bar specimens. The location shift for crack initiation from centre of the specimens to notch root can only be reproduced by accounting for secondary voids. The GTN model is capable to estimate the crack initiation in good correspondence with experimental results. Due to highest triaxiality level failure behaviour in the specimen with the sharpest notch is mostly affected by the increase of fN value. According to the results from fracture mechanics tests, the increase in resistance level from using low constraint SENT instead of SENB specimens is similar to the 7

one obtained by reducing crack ratio a/W from 0.5 to 0.2. On the other hand, according to numerical results the effect of different specimen type on the fracture resistance is far less pronounced when compared to reduction of crack ratio. By applying GTN parameters validated on quasi-static fracture mechanics tests, the maximum load level including the beginning of the load drop for DWTT can be quantitatively well described. Although the slant fracture cannot be reproduced, the result indicates that GTN model might be suitable for modelling of dynamic fracture propagation in pipeline, given that issues regarding very high computing time can be solved, e.g. application of non-local GTN model.

Further research activities are planned to describe the ductile damage process of the flawed pipe in dependence of the microstructure. The results should serve the improvement of the X100 toughness properties. REFERENCES [1] DNV RP-F108 Fracture Control for Pipeline Installation Methods Introducing Cyclic Plastic Strain Hovik, Norway: Det Norske Veritas, 2006 [2] Tanguy, B.; Luu, T.T; Perrin G.; Pineau, A.; Besson, J : Plastic and damage behaviour of a high strength X100 pipeline steel: Experiments and modelling International Journal of Pressure Vessels and Piping, 85 (2008), 322-335 [3] Hashemi, S.H; I. C. Howard I.C.; Yates, J.R.; Andrews R.M.: The transferability of micro-mechanical damage parameters in modern line pipe steel Proc. 15th European Conference on Fracture, Stockholm, Sweden, 2004 [4] Gurson, A.L.: Continuum theory of ductile rupture by void nucleation and growth: Part I yield criteria and flow rules for porous ductile media J. Eng. Mater. Technol.-Trans. ASME 99, pp. 2-15, 1977 [5] Needleman, A.; Tvergaard, V.: An analysis of ductile rupture modes at a crack tip J. Mech. Phys. Solids, 35 (1987), pp. 151-183 [6] Beckert, M.; Klemm, H.: Handbuch der metallographischen tzverfahren 4th Edition, edited by VEB Deutscher Verlag fr Grundstoffindustrie, Leipzig, 1985 [7] Thibaux, P.; Van den Abeele, F.: Determination of crack initiation and propagation energy in instrumented Charpy V-notch impact tests by finite element simulations Proc. Pipeline Technology Conference, Ostend, Belgium, Paper no: Ostend2009093, 2009 [8] Nahshon, K.; Hutchinson, J.W.: Modification of the Gurson model for shear failure European Journal of Mechanics A/Solids, 27 (2008), pp. 1-17 [9] BS 7448-4 Method for determination of fracture resistance curves and initiation values for stable crack extension in metallic materials BSI; 1997 Corresponding author: a.nonn@du.szmf.de