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Fracture properties and fatigue life assessment of API X70 pipeline steel under the effect of an environment containing hydrogen

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Abstract

A series of fracture toughness and fatigue crack growth rate tests were performed on the X70 pipeline steel base and weld metals under 10 MPa of a natural/hydrogen gas mixture with 1% H2 blends. It is observed that the 10 MPa gas mixture with 1% H2 causes a significant reduction in the fracture toughness in both metals. The fatigue crack growth rates are markedly accelerated under the gas mixtures with 1 % hydrogen blend compared with the tests performed in ambient air. The obtained fracture parameters serve as inputs for fatigue life assessment analyses under the effect of a hydrogen-containing environment. The observed design fatigue life depends strongly only on the environmental conditions. The design fatigue strength of the structural pipeline exposed to hydrogen is much shorter than that under ambient air owing to the decrease in fracture toughness properties and acceleration of the fatigue crack growth rate.

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Abbreviations

a :

Crack depth

a o :

Initial crack depth

a Crtical :

Critical crack depth

C :

Fatigue crack growth coefficient

c :

Half of crack length

CTOD :

Crack tip opening displacement

F :

Boundary correction

FCGR :

Fatigue crack growth rate

K :

Stress intensity factor for mode I crack

K IC :

Fracture toughness

m :

Fatigue crack growth exponent

P :

Internal pressure

Q :

Shape factor

R i :

Inner radius of cylinder

R m :

Mean radius of cylinder

R o :

Outer radius of cylinder

t :

Wall thickness of cylinder

σ :

Stress and stress rate, respectively

σ h :

Hoop stress in cylinder

σ r :

Axial stress in cylinder

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by Development of Reliability Measurement Technology for Hydrogen Refueling Station funded by Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS-2020-GP2020-0007).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Team of Material Compatibility to Hydrogen Facility, Safety Measurement Institute, Korea Research Institute of Standard and Science, 267 Gajeong-Ro, Yeseong-Gu, Daejeon, 34113, Korea

    Thanh Tuan Nguyen, Hyeong Min Heo, Jaeyeong Park, Seung Hoon Nahm & Un Bong Beak

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  1. Thanh Tuan Nguyen
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  2. Hyeong Min Heo
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Un Bong Beak.

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Recommended by Editor Chongdu Cho

Thanh Tuan Nguyen received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Chung-Ang University, Korea in 2018. He is currently working as a post-doctoral fellow at the Korea Research Institute of Standard and Science. His research interests are failure analysis, high-temperature fracture mechanics and the effect of gaseous hydrogen environments on the mechanical properties of materials.

Hyeong Min Heo received his Ph.D. in Material Science Engineering from Han Yang University, Korea in 2019. He is currently working as Senior Researcher at the Korea Research Institute of Standard and Science. His research interests are material characterizations and the mechanical behaviour of materials under the effect of hydrogen gas.

Jaeyeong Park received his Ph.D. in Material Science Engineering from Pohang University of Science and Technology, Korea in 2018. He is currently working as Senior Researcher at the Korea Research Institute of Standard and Science. His research interests are materials science and the mechanical behaviour of materials at high temperature, including anisotropic materials such as gas turbine blades.

Seung Hoon Nahm received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Kyungpook National University, Korea in 1997. He is currently working as Principal Research Scientist at the Korea Research Institute of Standard and Science. His research interests are the mechanical behaviour of materials at the micro and nano-scales, hydrogen embrittlement and mechanical behaviour of materials at high temperature.

Un Bong Baek received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Kyungpook National University in 2001. He worked at Georgia Institute of Technology, U.S.A. as a post-doctoral fellow during 2002–2003. Dr. Baek is currently Director of the Centre for Energy and Material Metrology of KRISS (Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science). His research interest is in the mechanical behaviour of materials in high-pressure hydrogen environments.

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Nguyen, T.T., Heo, H.M., Park, J. et al. Fracture properties and fatigue life assessment of API X70 pipeline steel under the effect of an environment containing hydrogen. J Mech Sci Technol 35, 1445–1455 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-021-0310-0

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