Proceedings of the ASME 2011 Pressure Vessels & Piping Division Conference

PVP2011
July 17-21, 2011, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

PVP2011-57840

Investigation On Creep-rupture Failure Time Of HDPE Pipe Under Hydrostatic

Pressure
Cheng Xu

Ping Xu*

Jianfeng Shi

Institute of Applied Mechanics,

Institute of Applied Mechanics,

Institute of Process Equipment,

Zhejiang University,

Zhejiang University,

Zhejiang University,

Hangzhou 310027,

Hangzhou 310027,

Hangzhou 310027,

P. R. China

P. R. China

P. R. China

ABSTRACT

utilizes stress rupture testing method for rating

There are three typical failure modes of high

density

polyethylene

(HDPE)

pipe

plastic piping materials and uses the failure data

under

to fit the straight-line equation employed by the

ISO 9080 protocol [3, 4]:

hydrostatic pressure, which are relatively caused

by creep, slow crack growth, and degradation.

log t fail [ A

The duration time of HDPE pipe under

B
D
] [C ] log hoop
T
T

(1)

hydrostatic pressure before creep-rupture failure

Equation (1) is a three-parameter equation

is predicted based on a viscoelastic constitutive

linking the time to failure, hoop stress and

model. It is found that, hoop stress increases due

operating temperature. However, the test data

to reduction in wall thickness of HDPE pipe

from hydrostatic pressure is fit to a scatter plot

because of creep, while yielding stress decreases

and thus takes a lot of time to generate.

owing to the decrease in creep rate. When the

Therefore, it is necessary to understand the

hoop stress approaches the yielding stress, the

failure process and build a theoretical failure

pipe will quickly deform and then structural

model to predict lifetime, which related to the

failure will follow.

material parameter.
There are three typical failure modes of HDPE

Keywords: HDPE, hoop stress, creep-rupture

pipe. As shown in Fig. 1, in Mode1, the pipe

failure, yield stress, creep

fails
1. INTRODUCTION

mainly in a

ductile

manner

under

mechanical overload at higher stresses. In

Nowadays, PE pipe has been widely used for

Mode-2, the failure mode becomes mainly brittle

transport of natural gas and water because of its

failures associated with slow crack growth at

ease of installation, relatively low cost and

lower stresses. In Mode-3, the failure is caused

long-term resistance to aggressive agents [1].

by chemical degradation [2, 4]. With the upgrade

HDPE pipe used for gas or water transport are

of material, the region of ductile failure is

under pressure. It is important to establish an

expanded. So it is crucial to predict the ductile

appropriate design stress so that such a pipe can

failure time.

withstand the pressure without damage over its

expected lifetime [2].The Plastics Pipe Institute

1
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24

10
9
8
7

23

Mode-1
o

Mode-2

T=20 C

6
5
4
3

Yield stress /Mpa

hoop stress / MPa

12
11

Mode-3

22

21

20

2
1
1

10

100

1000 10000 1000001000000

19
-8

failure time / h

-7

-6

-5

-4

-3

ln(strain rate)

Fig.1 The Hoop Stress versus Failure Time

Fig. 3 Yield Stress versus Stain Rate

2. EXPERIMENT

3. MODELING

The test material used was taken from PE3804B

3.1 Failure Process

HDPE pipe. Uniaxial tension tests are conducted

under constant strain rates ranging from 10

Short-term burst test shows that the strain is

to

about 10% after ductile damage, while the yield

10 /sec. The stress is initially proportional to

strain of the PE obtained by tensile test is about

strain but the relationship quickly becomes

15%. Thus, there is no strain hardening in the

nonlinear as shown in Fig. 2. Tensile modulus is

process of ductile damage but the internal wall

about 720 MPa. The yield stress monotonically

experiences plastic deformation rapidly. Soon

increases with strain rate [5].The yield stress

after, this extends to the outside wall of the pipe

versus strain rate is depicted in Fig.3, where a

and when the hoop stress exceeds the yield stress,

semi-logarithmic plot is used. The relationship

the pipe ruptures quickly. Figure 4 shows ductile

between strain rate and yield stress can be

failure.

expressed by the Eyring equation:

y 0.6578 ln 25 .454

However, the initial hoop stress is usually less

than the half of the yield stress and the creep

(2)

continues until destruction. Due to the viscoelastic behavior of polyethylene, the hoop stress
due to internal pressure causes pipe creep.

25

This

makes the diameter of pipe increase and the wall

stress / MPa

20

thickness decrease. The change in wall thickness

of the pipe will make hoop stress increase.

15

Because the creep strain rate during creep

10

decreases, the yield stress of polyethylene also

decreases according to Eq.(2). When the

increased stress and the decreased yield stress

0

0.05

0.1

0.15

reach to the same value as it is shown in Fig.5,

0.2

the material failure occurs and the whole creep

Strain

Fig.2 The Curve of Uniaxial Tension

time is the life of ductile failure.

2
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can be derived:
d 0

Ec

d c

0.2886

E 1.83328 t 0.09186 0

01.2886 (3600 t ' ) 0.09186

(4)

(5)

1.2886 E 1.8332
'

Where t is the time (divided by unit hour to

facilitate the calculation).
Fig.4 Picture of the Ductile Damage

3.3 Basic Assumptions

The following assumptions are made:
SDR11 PE pipes can be regarded as thin-wall

stress

tubes. The stress due to pressure is given by:

D
P
2h

(6)

is the hoop stress. In order to

yield stress

hoop stress

Where

simplify the process, h is the minimum

as-fabricated wall thickness and D is the middle
diameter rather than the typical inner diameter.

creep time T

If the radial stress is ignored and taking the

Fig.5 Schematic diagram of the Creep Process

engineering stress instead of the true stress, we

can obtain the following formula:

3.2 PE Constitutive Model

In order to predict long-time creep behavior

based on short-time experimental data, a timedependent constitutive equation should be given.

Where

[6] By investigating the loading, unloading,

creep and relaxation at various strain rate, Zhang

01.2886 (3600 t ' ) 0.09186

1.2886 E 1.8332

(7)

is the hoop engineering strain and

0 is the hoop engineering stress.

and Moore gave a nonlinear viscoelastic (NVE)

model and viscoplastic (VP) model. However,

The creep is not a constant uniaxial creep,

the report maybe dose not accord with the

engineering stress is varying with the time. The

long-term creep. [7] Cunjiang Cheng developed

hoop engineering stress can be simplified as only

an equation to represent the creep modulus

determined by the engineering strain at a certain

versus time and stress relationship by the data

time and is independent of the stress history.

from the PPI .The creep modulus equation is

(i)

(8)
1.2886 E 1.8332
(4) The relationship between the strain rate and

expressed:
0.2886

E c (t , 0 ) E 1.83328 t 0.09186 0

(3)

yield stress in Eq. (2) obtained at the higher

strain (about 10 4 to 10 1 /sec) can be applied

Where E is the creep modulus, E is the

short-term tensile modulus, t is the time (second),
and

0 is

(i)1.2886 (3600 t ' ) 0.09186

to the extremely slow strain rate (about 10 7

/sec).

the initial engineering stress (MPa).

3.4 Lifetime Prediction Model

Based on this equation, the following equation

The variation of hoop strain, hoop stress and

3
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middle diameter can be calculated by iteration.

(1) shows.

Thus, initial engineering strain can be defined

It is to be noted that the model parameters are

as:

very sensitive to the type of HDPE[3]; for

(0)

(0)
E

D(0) P
2hE

example,

(9)

nkneret al. have found :

[8] Tra

log t fail 7.0151 3.3681 log hoop

The iteration is operated as following Eq.(10),

(15)

Eq.(11), Eq.(12) and one hour can be chosen as

Krishnaswamy proposed that the failure from

one step:

creep rupture is primarily driven by the yield

D(i ) (1 (i 1)) D(0)

P D (i )
2h

strain rate in Eq. (2) is the dominant factor rather

(11)

than the yield stress obtained by the certain

(i)

(3600 i )
1.2886 E 1.8332
The creep rate can be defined as:

(i)

and Eq. (15) indicates that the coefficient of the

1.2886

' 0.09186

strain rate.

(12)

10

(13)

3600

hoop stress /Mpa

(i )

stress. However, the difference between Eq. (14)

(10)

When the hoop stress is greater than or equal to

the yield stress, the pipe failure .It can be
expressed by Eq. (13)

(k )

P D(k )
y (k ) ,
2h

10
0
10

according to the Eq.(2),

10

failure time /h

y (k ) 0.6578 ln (k ) 25 .454
Thus, the lifetime

10

Fig.6 Failure Time versus Hoop Stress

t fail k .

Table 2 Failure Time and Hoop Stress

4. RESULTS

internal pressure

hoop stress

failure time

(MPa)

(MPa)

(hour)

D / h =10.

1.7

8.5

53428

Equation (2) and (3) are obtained when the

1.8

22898

temperature is 23 0 C .The short-term tensile

1.9

9.5

9848

modulus, E, is obtained from tensile test. By

10

4252

solving the pipe model equation, the failure time

2.1

10.5

1844

is calculated

different internal

2.2

11

804

pressures and is shown in Table 2. A systematic

2.3

11.5

352

linear dependence is evident based on the

2.4

12

156

semi-log plot as shown in Fig. 6. The following

2.5

12.5

69

relationship between failure time and initial

2.6

13

31

hoop stress can be obtained :

2.7

13.5

15

2.8

14

2.9

14.5

3
3.1

15
15.5

3
2

In terms of SDR11 of PE pipe,

at

several

log t fail 1.2001 0.056 log hoop

(14)

The liner relationship between hoop stress and

fail time is fit to the ISO 9080 protocol as the Eq.

4
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Copyright 2011 by ASME

is stress is one of the dominant factors relative to

Fig.7 shows the trends of yield stress variation

hoop stress. The linear relationship between

with time at the initial stress =11.5 MPa. The

hoop stress and failure time is coincident with

yield stress is about 11 MPa at the low speed

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

the ISO 9080 protocol.

creep. But in the short-term tension as shown in

We would like to acknowledge the financial

Fig.3, the yield stress is above 22 MPa, Hence ,

support from the National Key Technology R&D

the yield stress cant be directly used to

Program

deter-mine the failure criterion at the normal

2011BAK06B01).

tension strain rate.

Nomenclature

(Project

No.

t fail = the lifetime of failure

= strain rate

17

yield stress /Mpa

P.R.China

y = yield stress

18

16

=hoop stress
E =short-term tensile modulus
E c = creep modulus
0 = the initial engineering
c = creep strain

15
14
13
12
11

of

500

1000

1500

=hoop engineering stress.

REFERENCES

2000

time /h

1.

Fig.7 Time versus Yield Stress

Sun, X., Polyolefin Pipes. Chemical

Industry, 2002.

2.

11.1

Krishnaswamy,

R.K.,

Analysis

of

hoop stress /Mpa

ductile and brittle failures from creep

11

rupture

testing

of

high-density

polyethylene (HDPE) pipes. Polymer,

10.9

2005. 46(25): p. 11664-11672.

10.8

3.

Khelif, R., A. Chateauneuf, and K.

Chaoui, Reliability-based assessment of

10.7

500

1000

1500

2000

time /h

polyethylene

pipe

International

Journal

creep

lifetime.

of

Pressure

Vessels and Piping, 2007. 84(12): p.

697-707.

Fig.8 Time versus Hoop Stress

4.

Figure 8 shows that the change of the hoop stress

Institute, T.P.P., TR-3/2010 HDB/HDS

/PDB/SDB/MRS Policies. 2010.

in the creep process..

5.

Dasari, A. and R.D.K. Misra, On the

5. CONCLUSIONS

strain rate sensitivity of high density

Based on the relationship between hoop stress

polyethylene

and strain rate at various strain rate and the

Materials Science and Engineering A,

change of the wall thickness under hoop stress, a

2003. 358(1-2): p. 356-371.

method to predict the lifetime of PE pipe is

6.

and

polypropylenes.

Zhang, C. and I.D. Moore, Nonlinear

proposed. The relationship between the hoop

mechanical response of high density

stress and failure time has been developed. The

polyethylene.

Part

results indicate that the coefficient of yield stress

constitutive

modeling.

5
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II:

Uniaxial
Polymer

Copyright 2011 by ASME

Engineering & Science, 1997. 37(2): p.

414-420.
7.

Cheng,

C.

and

G.E.O.

Widera,

Development of Maximum Secondary

Creep Strain Method for Lifetime of
HDPE Pipes. Journal of Pressure
Vessel Technology, 2009. 131(2): p.
021208-9.
8.

Trnkner, T., M. Hedenqvist, and U.W.

Gedde, Structure and crack growth in
gas pipes of medium-density and
high-density

polyethylene.

Polymer

Engineering & Science, 1996. 36(16): p.

2069-2076.

6
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