Ramberg–Osgood type stress–strain curve estimation using yield and ultimate strengths for failure assessments

•The Ramberg–Osgood type stress–strain curve estimation procedure was proposed.•The estimation requires only the yield and ultimate strengths.•The estimation accuracy was confirmed by test results and failure assessments.

A procedure for estimating true stress–strain curves of the Ramberg–Osgood type was proposed. Only the yield and ultimate strengths are required for the estimation. The estimation procedure was applied to eight materials in order to investigate validity of estimations for assessing structural integrity of cracked pipes. It was shown that the change in failure load derived using the estimated stress–strain curves increased as the yield strength was decreased. It was concluded that the change in failure load derived using the proposed procedure could be limited to less than 5%.