Investigation on plastic eta factors for SE(T) specimens with undermatched weld metal based on plane strain finite element analysis

At present, the growing demand for the subsea transport of the highly corrosive media has driven the oil and gas industries to use clad or lined pipes. In order to ensure the corrosion resistance performance of circumferential welds in clad or lined pipes, nickel based alloy consumables are routinely used, which indicates that the yield strength of the weld metal is lower than that of base metal. To measure the toughness of the undermatched weld metal, plastic eta factors for clamped-end and pin-loaded single-edge tension specimens with a wide range of configurations and different undermatched levels were obtained based on detailed plane strain finite element analysis. From this analysis, a set of equations for the plastic eta factor is proposed.