Pressure pipe damage: Numerical estimation of point load effect

Peer-reviewed article not indexed in WoS or Scopus

en

The most relevant loading conditions for real polymer pipe systems are not only internal pressure, but also loading caused by sand embedding including bending or different kinds of point loads. It has been shown that service lifetime of buried pipes can be reduced especially due to stress concentration caused by external point loads. If the pipe is loaded locally the stress is concentrated here and a crack can initiate at this position or the existing crack can be affected by corresponding stress redistribution. In the paper the effect of the hard indenter, Poissons ratio, hoop stress level and pipe wall thickness on the crack shape was estimated using numerical simulations of the creep crack propagation based on finite element method. Relation between crack length and crack width was found and expressed by simple relationship. A deeper understanding of the point load effect in order to prevent unexpected failure of the pipelines is of paramount importance for pipeline design.

polymer pressure pipes, point load, stress intensity factor, crack shape prediction

2013-01-10

1013-9826

Key Engineering Materials (print)

525-526

1

177–180

4