Crack propagation and arrest simulation of X90 gas pipe

- A damage model was suggested as crack arrest criterion.
- Plastic uniform elongation and damage strain energy density are material parameters.
- Fracture characteristic length is suggested to be largest mesh size in cracking path.
- Crack propagating simulation with coupling of pipe and gas was realized in ABAQUS.
- A Chinese X90 steel pipe with 12 MPa internal pressure can arrest cracking itself.

To determine whether X90 steel pipe has enough crack arrest toughness or not, a damage model was suggested as crack arrest criterion with material parameters of plastic uniform percentage elongation and damage strain energy per volume. Fracture characteristic length which characterizes fracture zone size was suggested to be the largest mesh size on expected cracking path. Plastic uniform percentage elongation, damage strain energy per volume and fracture characteristic length of X90 were obtained by five kinds of tensile tests. Based on this criterion, a length of 24 m, Φ1219 × 16.3 mm pipe segment model with 12 MPa internal gas pressure was built and computed with fluid-structure coupling method in ABAQUS. Ideal gas state equation was used to describe lean gas behavior. Euler grid was used to mesh gas zone inside the pipe while Lagrangian shell element was used to mesh pipe. Crack propagation speed and gas decompression speed were got after computation. The result shows that, when plastic uniform percentage elongation is equal to 0.054 and damage strain energy per volume is equal to 0.64 J/mm3, crack propagation speed is less than gas decompression speed, which means the simulated X90 gas pipe with 12 MPa internal pressure can arrest cracking itself.