Creep Fatigue Damage Assessment of V-Butt Weld Pipe With an Extended Direct Steady Cycle Analysis

Abstract

One of the methods to increase the efficiency of power plants is by increasing their operating temperature, this can lead to various damage mechanisms due to creep-cyclic plasticity interactions such as creep ratcheting, cyclically enhanced creep and creep enhanced plasticity. In the presence of welds, their assessments are complicated due to the presence of different material zones, namely parent metal, weld metal and heat affected zone which exhibit different properties. This paper aims at investigating the creep-fatigue damage of a V-butt welded pipe under a constant mechanical load and a cyclic temperature load, considering full interaction between creep and cyclic plasticity using the extended Direct Steady Cycle Analysis (eDSCA) within the Linear Matching Method Framework (LMMF). The impact of applied load level and creep dwell on the failure mechanism and location is investigated. Influence of hoop to axial stress ratio and groove angle is studied comprehensively by choosing ranges covering majority of common pipe configurations. Further validation of results is carried out by using detailed step-by-step inelastic analyses in ABAQUS, thereby demonstrating the accuracy and efficiency of LMM eDSCA in predicating the remaining life of multi-material components such as a welded pipe, combining with appropriate creep and fatigue damage models.