Determination of slow crack growth behaviour of polyethylene pressure pipes with cracked round bar test

In this work, a short time test method to determine the slow crack growth behaviour of samples made out of pipes was evaluated. The cracked round bar (CRB) method used provides results below 48 h with brittle fracture surfaces, which indicates the type of slow crack growth failure. To evaluate the usability of the method, the results were compared with well-known tests such as notch pipe test, 2 notch creep test and instrumented Charpy impact tests. The results indicate that the CRB test can be used to predict long term slow crack growth behaviour of PE pipes.