Simulation of Ductile Fracture in Pipeline Steels Under Varying Constraint Conditions Using Cohesive Zone Modeling

Fracture propagation toughness is important to pipeline steels. In this study, the effect of non-singular T-stress (a measure of constraint) on crack growth resistance curves (R-curves) and crack tip opening angle (CTOA) was investigated using modified boundary layer (MBL) models of pipeline steels. Two sets of steel types: 1) TH (a typical high strength steel) and 2) C4 (X100 steel) were used in this work. Surface-based cohesive zone models with four sets of bilinear traction-separation (TS) laws were used for TH steel. The models of C4 steel were computed using element-based cohesive zone modeling with one bilinear TS law. All finite element simulations were conducted using the finite element (FE) program ABAQUS. It was assumed in these simulations that there was no effect of T-stress on the TS laws per se. With this assumption, it was found that the T-stress does not have a significant effect on the CTOA for the two materials studied.