Application of numerical simulation to evaluate the rupture of pipelines

S.EL FAKKOUSSI H.MOUSTABCHIR A.EL KHALFI

Faculty of Science and Technology, Faculty of science and technology of Faculty of Science and Technology,
Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University Errachidia, Universite My Ismail Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University
Fez. Morocco. Errachidia. Morocco. Fez. Morocco.

[email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

ABSTRACT
Pipelines are critical infrastructure that plays an important role in 1 INTRODUCTION
the oil industry, and the most widely used mode of transportation
The structural integrity of gas pipeline systems is essential for the
in the world to transport gas and oil. One example is the proposed
transportation of energy resources in the fields of production as
gas pipeline that will connect Nigeria with Morocco [1]. The
well as in the field of export. The transport of these energy
external environment may impact these pipelines by scraping
resources has become a major concern for engineers, despite all the
excavation equipment or rock causing damage in the form of a
research carried out on gas pipelines which are still insufficient to
notch or crack in the wall of the pipe which consequently affects
fully understand the mechanism of the initiation and propagation of
the resistance of the structures during their use. This requires
cracks, which consequently trigger the ruin of this structure and
knowledge of the degree of harmfulness of defects and its effect on
cause significant material and human damage. The PHMSA
the lifetime of pipelines. Based on this method, we intend to
(pipeline and hazardous material safety administration) survey
proceed by the use of the fracture mechanics.
found that most metal pipe failures are caused by the propagation
In this paper, we will use numerical simulation using ABAQUS of a crack or surface defect that causes local plastic deformation,
software to describe the most important parameters of the rupture due to mechanical impact or external interference or corrosion
mechanics used to predict pipe rupture in the field of elastic pitting [2], some of which may be in the form of a tooth or crack or
mechanics. Analyzes existing in the literature. At the end of this combinations thereof.
paper, we computed the Stress Intensity Factor KI mode I in the These defects are treated by the approach of the fracture
elastic domain using the XFEM method integrated in ABAQUS. mechanics, they based on analytical methods, to extract these
The results that we will develop later will show a good agreement parameters and compare with critical values that a little
between the results computed by the software ABAQUS and this complicated if found in the case of complex structures, based on
one found by the analytical methods of several authors. this problem, numerical simulation has become a more powerful
tool to calculate the parameters of the fracture mechanics.
KEYWORDS
Linear elastic mechanics, Stress Intensity Factor KI, energy 2 Literature review
restitution rate G, stress T, integral J, XFEM
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for 2.1 The approach of the linear elastic fracture
personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies mechanics
are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that The elastic area of the fracture mechanics, there are two approaches
copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights to evaluate the defect in the pipes, the KI stress intensity factor and
for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be the energy approach.
honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or
2.1.1 Stress Intensity Factor (KI). The stress intensity factor is one
republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior
of the most important parameters in the fracture mechanics. It
specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from
allows to predict whether or not the crack is stable in comparison
[email protected]. ICCWCS'17, November 14–16, 2017, Larache,
Morocco © 2017 Association for Computing Machinery. ACM ISBN
to the toughness of the Material ୍େ , the determination of  ୍େ is
978-1-4503-5306-9/17/11…$15.00 usually performed using the Charpy-V impact test [3]. Most of the
https://doi.org/10.1145/3167486.3167564 cracked engineering components are reviewed by KI, which can be


calculated by various experimental or theoretical methods such as The importance of the two-parameter approach is becoming more
finite element analysis. and more popular, and many authors take account of the T
There are many methods in the literature to determine the stress constraint in the analysis of the problems of the mechanics of
intensity factor, we quote for example: rupture [8][9][10].
- Calculation of the KI factor by the Zahoor method [4] : Generally, the behavior at break is characterized by a single
The Mode I Stress Intensity Factor (KI) is based on the applied parameter such as the stress intensity factor (FIC). Traditionally,
internal pressure, the pipe size and the fault size. It is given by the this factor is used to determine the initiation and propagation of
following equation: cracks. But, it remained insufficient to describe well the fracture in
 Ɏƒ the materials. However, a second breaking parameter, termed the
୍ ൌ ඨ ቈͳǡͳʹ ൅ ͲǡͲͷ͵ߙ ൅ ͲǡͲͲͷͷߙ ଶ stress T, is used for the purpose of knowing the stress level at a
– 
crack or notch point [9].
ʹͲ െ ܴ ଶ The stress fields near the crack point can be written as a series
൅ ሺͳ ൅ ͲǡͲʹߙ ൅ ͲǡͲͳͻͳߙ ଶ ሻ ൬ ൰ 
‫ݐ‬ expansion of Williams [11]. Where the higher order of the terms of
expansion of the series is negligible, the stress fields can give by
ȀͳͶͲͲ቉ሺͳሻ
the following equation:
ୟ ௔ ௔ ୍
With  ൌ ͳǡͲ ൅ ͳǡͶ͸Ͷሺୡሻଵǡ଺ହ for ƒȀ ൑ ͳ and ߙ ൌ ሺ ௧ ሻሺଶ௖ሻ ɐ୧୨ ൌ ˆ୧୨ ሺɅሻ ൅ Ɂଵ୧ Ɂଵ୨ ሺ͸ሻ
ோ೐ ାோ೔ ξʹǤ ɎǤ ”
ൌ ଶ
Is the mean radius, P: Pressure applied to the tube, t: tube Williams [11] defined the stress T as being a constant stress, which
thickness. activates parallel to the propagation of the crack.
- Calculation of the KI factor by the integral contour Analytical and experimental studies have shown that the parameter
method: T can be used as a measure of the stress, see for example; Sumpter
The integral J is used to calculate the factor KI for the mechanical [12] and Chao et al. [13] have shown that fracture toughness
case with linear elastic fracture. The integral J is equivalent to the increases as the (-T) term increases.
rate of energy restitution G under a single mode for linear elastic Rice [14], Larsson and Carlsson [15] have shown that the sign and
problems. The factor KI can be calculated from the integral J magnitude of stress T are substantially alter the size and shape the
according to the following equation [5]: plastic area at the crack tip. Positive or negative, stress T increases
 ൌ ඥ Ԣ (2) the size of the plastic zone. In plane strain, the plastic zone is
୉ oriented along the crack extension for T> 0 and in an opposite
With  ᇱ ൌ  plane stress,  ᇱ ൌ plane strain.
ଵି஝మ direction when T <0.
- Calculation of the KI factor by the Raju and Newman It has been demonstrated by several authors [12] [13] [16] that the
method [6]: stress T has an influence on the cracking path. If we place in the
particular case of a Griffith crack, a positive stress T corresponds
୮ୖ౟ మ ஠ୟ ୟ ୟ ଶ ୟ ଷ
୍ ൌ మ మ ට ୕ ൤ʹ ଴ ൅ʹ ଵ ቀୖ ቁ൅͵ ଶ ቀୖ ቁ ൅Ͷ ଷ ቀୖ ቁ ൨ to a constraint ߪ௫௫ superior ߪ௬௬ .
ୖ౛ ିୖ౟ ౛ ౛ ౛
It has been shown that a negative T-stress stabilizes the cracking
(3)
ୟ path. On the other hand, a positive T-stress accentuates the
With  ൌ ͳǡͲ ൅ ͳǡͶ͸Ͷሺୡሻଵǡ଺ହ for ƒȀ ൑ ͳ deviations due to microstructural obstacles and allows the crack to
G0, G1, G2, G3, are functions dependent on geometry [6]. fork [17].
 ୧ and  ୣ are the inner radius and the outer radius.
P: Pressure applied to the tubeǤ 2.3 Research in this field
Currently, in the literature, there is a lot of research that is interested
2.1.1 Energy release rate G. When the material is of linear elastic in analyzing the fracture of defective pressure vessels. Different
behavior, the integral J is relatively simple because the integral J is methods and approaches have been used to try to discover and
equal to the rate of energy restitution (G) and G is only related to provide required solutions, for example:
the stress intensity factor (FIC). Chun-Qing Li and all [18] proposed a module that based on elastic
The relation between the factor  ୣ , KI and  , in mode I, is linear mechanics, where they used ductile materials to predict
presented in the following equation [7]: rupture of steel pipes. This module is the derivative of the elastic
୏౅ మ
Plane stress: ୣ ൌ ୍ ൌ ୉
ሺͶሻ toughness, the latter is according to the geometry and the properties
୏౅ మ of the material of the cracked tube. Subsequently, they verified this
Plane strain: ୣ ൌ ୍ ൌ ሺͳ െ ˜ ଶ ሻሺͷሻ
୉ module, parametric studies are conducted to study the effect of key
In mode 1, the break occurs when G1 reaches the critical value G1c parameters on failure modes and elastic fracture resistance. The
which is a characteristic of the material in the same way as the result of this study allows the use of extended results based on the
toughnessଵ௖ . mechanics of elastic linear rupture by engineers for the evaluation
of ductile metal pipes, which can prevent further pipe failures.
Madjid et al. [19] studied the effect of the presence of a
2.2 The two-parameter approach K-T circumferential crack on the surface of internal pressure vessels,


using the stress intensity factor KI to evaluate the effect of the crack Inner radius ‹ ൌ ͳͲͲ
on the resistance of this structure. They used the 3D finite element
Outer radius ‡ ൌ ͳͳͲ
method to calculate this factor in different critical areas near the
crack. They found that the KI factor increases proportionally as the Thickness – ൌ ͳͲ
pressure increases for different angles of the crack. Length  ൌ ͳͷͲ
Keprate et al. [20] proposed an inexpensive calculation using a new
adaptive gaussian process regression model (AGPRM) that can be
used as an alternative to FEM for FIC prediction to assess the The defect form is a longitudinal semi-elliptical crack Fig. 2 located
degradation of fatigue in pipelines. They calculated the FIC by on the inner surface of the inner pressure tube P as shown in Fig. 1
three methods, the analytical method based on equations given by
the reference BS7910, the numerical method FEM calculated by
software ANSYS and by the new method AGPRM. They found by
comparing the results by different methods, that the FIC values
obtained by AGPRM and the values found by FEM were close with
a means of error of 1.76%, indicating a good agreement between
the two methods. In addition, the time required to predict the FIC
is reduced from 50 min (for FEM) to 12 s using the proposed
AGPRM.
Figure 1: 3D tube with axial semi-elliptical crack
3 Numerical simulation
3.1 Numerical simulation methodology

In this part, we used the Abaqus software to perform the numerical

simulation, it allows solving problems of the rupture mechanics,
and it took into consideration the boundary conditions, materials
and loadings. The steps of the simulation of this software are
presented in the following diagram:

Figure 2: Geometric Characteristics of defect

The material studied is generally P265GH steel used in boilers and

pressure vessels. The principal values of the mechanical
characteristics of the material obtained by the tensile tests are given
in Table 2 [21]:

Table 2: Mechanical properties of the material P265GH [21]

Young’s modulus ‫ ܧ‬ൌ ʹͲ͹ͲͲͲ‫ܽܲܯ‬

Poisson coefficient ߥ ൌ ͲǤ͵
The yield strength ߪ௘ ൌ ͵ͶͲ‫ܽܲܯ‬
Breaking stress ߪெ ൌ ͶͶͲ‫ܽܲܯ‬
Elongation ‫ ܣ‬ൌ ͵ͷΨ

3.2 Problem geometry and material data

3.3 Numerical modeling
The geometric characteristics of the tube used in this study are
presented in the following Table 1 [21]: In this study, longitudinal cracks were treated in pipes because they
are more critical than circumferential cracks. Therefore, only
longitudinal cracks have been studied in this work [22].
In the present research, the configuration of the crack is described
Tab 1: Geometric characteristics of the tube by certain non-dimensional parameters, namely the relative wall
thickness (t / R), the relative crack depth (a / t) and the aspect ratio


of the crack (a / c). The geometry of the pipe and the position of the
longitudinal crack on the pipes and their effects on the stress
intensity factor were studied at different positions along the front
of the crack, a / t: 0.2, 0.4, 0.6 and a / c: 0.2, 0.4 with t / R = 0.1

3.4 Meshing, boundary conditions and loading

For the XFEM method, the crack mesh is independent of the
geometry crack, but to obtain more accurate results, we have
refined the mesh near the crack region to achieve desired results as
shown in Fig. 3. The mesh size used is 0.5 mm. We used the Figure 6: Symmetry following the Z axis (U3=UR1=UR2=0)
element C3D8R Fig. 4 (An 8-node linear brick, reduced
integration) in this study. Which gave good results for this type of
problem. The number of elements is 147375 and the number of
nodes is 360684.

Figure 7: Distributions of Von mises stress put for the case

a/c=0.4 a/t=0.6

Figure 3: The mesh of the tube containing an axial crack,

mesh size 0.5 mm

Figure 8: Distributions of Von mises stress near the crack, the

maximum stress is 295.7 MPa

Figure 4: C3D8R hexahedral element with an integration 4 Results and Discussion

point The convergence of the results remains a necessary parameter to
validate the results found by the numerical simulation, we then
The internal pressure is set to P = 7 MPa [23] distributed on the tested the choice of mesh size and comparison with theoretical
inner face as shown in Fig. 5 solutions equation 7 for a non-cracked tube:
௉ோ
ߪఏఏ ൌ ௧
ሺ͹ሻ

Table 3: Evaluation of the error of the choice of mesh size

ોીી ሺƒሻ ોીી ሺሻ by Error %

Mesh theoretical Abaqus
size
2 mm 25 26.02 3.92
1.5 mm 25 26 3.84
Figure 5: Pressure P applied inside the tube
1 mm 25 25.98 3.77
0.5 mm 25 25.75 2.91


It can be concluded that the mesh size 0.5 mm is given good results After this study, we concluded that:
with an acceptable error of 2.91%. -The mode I stress intensity factor at the deepest point of the crack
The results found by ABAQUS method XFEM is calculated from front (deepest point) is deprived when the aspect ratio of the crack
equation (2), the values of KI used subsequently are considered (a / c) increases. This result is also found by Khoramishad and
from the 8 contours. Ayatollahi [22].
Fig. 9 shows the comparison between the ABAQUS (XFEM) - A comparison between the results found by ABAQUS (XFEM)
method, the Raju and Newman method [6], the Zahoor method [4] and the FEM method [23] shows a good agreement, not exceeding
and also the FEM method [23], varying the relative depth (a/ t). The a difference of 6.25%.
results presented in this analysis are calculated by φ = π / 2 (deepest - The comparison of the KI calculation with the XFEM method
point) where the factor KI is maximal. We have seen that there is a compared with the other analytical methods Zahoor [4] and Raju
good agreement between the results calculated by the different and Newman [6] is inferior to the FEM method [23].
methods and also showed how the values of KI along the front of - This observed global agreement gives confidence for the use of
the crack vary as a function of the crack depth ratio (a / t), where it numerical simulation based on the XFEM method integrated with
reaches maximum values when the ratio (a / t) is increased. abaqus software for the determination of KI values.
Fig. 10 also shows the comparison between the four methods
which have already been presented above concerning the aspect 5 Conclusions
ratio of the crack (a / c = 0.4). We have seen that there is good
The application of the XFEM method to calculate the stress
agreement between the results, and the values for the case (a / c =
intensity factor KI in mode I is done in the sense that the results
0.4) are less than
show a good agreement with the results existing in the literature.
(a / c = 0.2). It is concluded that when the ratio (a / c) is impaired,
The difference (in %) between the calculation of the KI by the
the KI factor increases by reaching critical values.
XFEM method is lower than the calculation by the classical FEM
method, this gives confidence for the use of numerical simulation
based XFEM method. These results also show that the position and
shape of longitudinal cracks on the pipe have a significant influence
on the stress intensity factor.
We can extend this work in a new direction of study, in order to
apply the XFEM method to calculate the stress intensity factor KI,
but this time for the notches, a bucket shock of the excavating
machine.

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