Effects of specimen geometry and anisotropic material response on the tensile strain capacity of flawed spiral welded pipes. (November 2015) - Van Minnebruggen, Koen
Highlights: Tensile strain capacity evaluation of spiral welded pipe for strain-based design. Parametric FEM study on the effects of forming angle and anisotropic material. Pipes with higher forming angle are more suitable for strain-based design. A good correspondence between wide plates and an unpressurized pipe is observed. Neglecting anisotropic material response can yield unconservative strain capacity. Abstract: Spiral welded pipes have gained interest for application in strain-based design related projects. However, there is a lack of fundamental knowledge about their performance in terms of tensile strain capacity. By means of parametric finite element analyses, the influence of pipe forming angle, weld strength overmatch and material strength anisotropy on the tensile strain capacity was investigated for (un-)pressurized pipe sections and wide plates. It is concluded that larger forming angles, when compared to lower angles, result in significant higher strain capacity and less sensitivity to anisotropy. Neglecting anisotropy in finite element analysis may overestimate strain capacity.