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Strain capacity analysis of the mismatched welding joint with

misalignments of D1422 mm X80 steel pipelines: an experimental
and numerical investigation

Hong Zhang , Kai Wu , Pengchao Chen , Yongli Sui , Die Yang ,

Xiaoben Liu

PII: S2667-1433(21)00027-5
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpse.2021.05.002
Reference: JPSE 14

To appear in: Journal of Pipeline Science and Engineering

Received date: 15 March 2021

Revised date: 11 May 2021
Accepted date: 17 May 2021

Please cite this article as: Hong Zhang , Kai Wu , Pengchao Chen , Yongli Sui , Die Yang ,
Xiaoben Liu , Strain capacity analysis of the mismatched welding joint with misalignments of D1422
mm X80 steel pipelines: an experimental and numerical investigation, Journal of Pipeline Science and
Engineering (2021), doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpse.2021.05.002

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 Strain capacity analysis of the mismatched welding joint with
misalignments of D1422 mm X80 steel pipelines: an experimental and
numerical investigation

Yue Yang1 Hong Zhang1 Kai Wu1 Pengchao Chen2 Yongli Sui3 Die Yang3 Xiaoben Liu1,4*
1. National Engineering Laboratory for Pipeline Safety, MOE Key Laboratory of Petroleum Engineering, Beijing Key
Laboratory of Urban Oil and Gas Distribution Technology, China University of Petroleum-Beijing, 102249 Beijing
China;
2. PipeChina North Pipeline Company, 065000 Langfang Hebei China;
3. China Petroleum Pipeline Research Institute, National Engineering Laboratory for Pipeline Safety, 065000 Langfang
Hebei China;
4. China University of Petroleum-Beijing at Karamay, 834000 Karamay Xinjiang China.

Corresponding author: xiaobenliu@cup.edu.cn

ABSTRACT
Anomalies as misalignment, microcrack are inevitable for large diameter high strength steel pipelines. To
ensure the strain capacity of mismatched welding joint with misalignments of D1422 mm X80 steel pipeline, a
comprehensive study via wide plate experiments and finite element model simulations was conducted. The
full-scale tensile experiment of a X80 pipe wide plate with weld joint was conducted. Strain distributions on the
plate was derived by DIC technic. Trends of CMOD at the precrack in the weld joint with tensile strains
monitored. A FE model was established to inverse the wide plate experiment and prove the accuracy of numerical
model’s prediction results for crack driving forces. Using the same modeling method, a parametrical 3D numerical
simulation model for X80 line pipe with cracks in automatic welding joints was established. The double V-shaped
groove type welding joint was precisely considered in the geometric model. Difference of the stress-strain
relationships of yielding-to-tensile ratio of the BM, softening rate of the HAZ and strength matching coefficient of
WM were considered in the material model. A CTOD extracting program coded was employed. Parametric
analysis was performed to investigate the effects of load conditions, strength matching coefficient of WM,
yielding-to-tensile ratio of BM and softening rate of HAZ on the strain capacity with a critical fracture toughness
adopted in pipeline industry. Based on the derived results, mismatched ratio requirements of D 1422 mm X80
pipes were listed, which provides guidance for the welding parameter design and safety evaluation of automatic
welding joints.

Keywords: strain capacity; welding joint; crack tip opening displacement; experimental investigation; numerical
investigation
Nomenclature
BM base metal
CMOD crack mouth opening displacement, mm
CTOD crack tip opening displacement, mm
DIC digital image correlation
E the Young’s modulus, MPa
EDM Electro Discharge Machining
FE finite element
FEM finite element method
HAZ heat affected zone
n the stress hardening index of the weld material
RM root-welding material
μ softening rate of the heat affected zone
WM weld material
XFEM extended finite element method
α the yield offset coefficient
ε the strain
ζ strength matching coefficient of the weld material
λ yielding-to-tensile ratio of the base metal
λw yielding-to-tensile ratio of the weld material
σ the stress, MPa
σT the tensile strength, MPa
σTw the tensile strength of the weld material, MPa
σY the yield strength, MPa
σYw the yield strength of the weld material, MPa

1 Introduction
In recent years, there have been many pipeline accidents caused by cracks in girth welds in Chinese pipeline
industry (Sui et al., 2019, 2020; Tong et al., 2019). Due to the welding process, technology, artificial and other
factors, there are often some defects in the welding seam, such as the misalignment, crack and so on (Luo et al.,
2015; Yang et al., 2015). Cracks at girth welds of high steel grade pipelines are mainly located at the fusion line of
root-welding material and heat affected zone (Zhang et al., 2020). Simultaneously, the girth welds have material
zones with different properties, such as base metal (BM), weld material (WM), root-welding material (RM) and
heat affected zone (HAZ). The discontinuity of the welded joints in geometry and material properties results in
significant stress and strain concentration in the defective parts, which greatly reduces the deformation bearing
capacity of the pipeline welded joints.
Recent decades, a lot of researches have been conducted on girth welds of onshore and offshore pipelines
with cracks under service load. The finite element method (FEM) has been widely used in the investigations of
fracture behaviors (Calucc et al., 2014; Paredes and Ruggieri, 2015) due to its advantages of high efficiency and
accurate calculation. Also, multi scale experimental researches were performed about the fracture toughness or
fracture behaviors of line pipe steels and pipelines (Anydin and Nelson, 2013; Didawi et al., 2015; Sha and Li,
2013; Wang et al., 2006, 2011; Wang and Hong, 2012; Zhang et al., 2018). There are also some researchs on the
fracture of vintage pipelines welded joints. Agbo et al. (2020) conducted the X42 vintage pipes four-point bending
test and simulated the test using an extended finite element method (XFEM). By carrying out nonlinear parametric
study and nonlinear regression analysis, a tensile strain capacity predictive model for welded X42 vintage pipes
was developed. Okodi et al. (2020) established an API 5L X60 pipe model using the XFEM. Data were obtained
through single edge notched tension test and full scale tests, and maximum principal strain and fracture energy
were taken as damage parameters. The analysis verified that the XFEM could effectively analyze the crack
propagation and accurately predict the burst pressures of specimens with shallow crack depth. Mohajer et al.
(2020) carried out a set of small-scale fracture tests to study the fracture of X65 steel. Through experiments and
numerical simulation, they have obtained the equivalent plastic strain to fracture of X65 steel as a
three-dimensional (3D) function of stress triaxiality and Lode Angle. An engineering application friendly general
ductile fracture toughness was proposed for X65 steel pipelines.
However, with the increasing demand for oil and gas energy, the high steel grade pipeline has been widely
used in the pipeline industry. Fracture of high steel grade pipelines welded joints (Zhang et al., 2013; Chong et al.,
2015; Zhao et al., 2018; Zhao et al., 2019) become a concerned issue for pipeline industry. Motohashi and
Hagiwara (2007) analyzed the effects of strain hardening capacity of the base metal, softening in the heat affected
zone, and groove configuration on fracture performance of X80 pipeline. Shuai and Kong (2017) analyzed the
influences of material properties, crack size and internal pressure on the girth weld strain capacity of D1219 mm
pipeline based on Gurson Tvergraard Needleman material damage theory. Wu et al. (2020) made a systematic
analysis of the specific effect of material mismatch and the realistic operational parameters that influence the
fracture capacity of the pipe. A novel strain-based J - integral prediction method was proposed. Zhang et al. (2020)
proposed a relatively fast and accurate numerical simulation method to quantitatively evaluate the girth weld
deformation bearing capacity of high steel grade pipeline under the influence of multiple parameters. Considering
the influence of strength matching and softening characteristics, the strain bearing capacity of X80 pipeline
automatic welding double V groove joint under different loading conditions was studied. The related research
results have important reference value for safety evaluation of pipelines with crack. Above all, the influence of the
misalignment, crack and material parameters on the fracture failure of the welded joint was obtained from existing
studies. However, the developed strain capacity model’s feasibility on D1422 mm X80 pipes have not been
validated, especially for the D1422 mm pipe with misalignment and mismatched welding joints. Due to the lack
of reasonable strain capacity models, the industry can not propose suitable requirements of the D1422 mm X80
pipe weld joints.
To fill this gap, a comprehensive experimental and numerical investigation was conducted in this paper. A
full-scale wide plate tensile test on the specimen derived for China-Russian Eastern Gas Pipeline was conducted
with a synchronous monitoring system combined with strain gauges and DIC technic. The variation law of
load-displacement curve, strain gage monitoring results and crack mouth opening displacement (CMOD) with
strain were obtained, which provided valuable data for numerical simulation verification. Through the inversion of
wide plate tensile test by FEM, rationality of the FE model and simulation method was verified from the load
displacement curve, the relationship between the distal nominal strain and the CMOD, and the strain field
distribution in the area near the crack surface, which provided a reliable support for the subsequent FE analysis
and calculation results. A three-dimensional parametric numerical model for strain capacity analysis of X80 pipe
was proposed. Influences of the loading types, the yielding-to-tensile ratio of base metal and the heat affected
zone softening rate on the strain capacity of the pipe were quantitatively analyzed. Finally, suitable critical
strength matching coefficient meeting the safety conditions of China Russian Eastern Gas Pipeline was obtained.

2 Full scale experimental investigation of X80 pipe wide plate and numerical inversion
2.1 Setup of the full scale Experiment
In this section, setup of the full-scale wide plate tensile experiment was introduced. The specimen was cut
from the largest X80 pipeline in China, i.e. the China-Russia Eastern Gas Pipeline. This X80 pipeline was
connected by automatic welding joints. The diameter and the wall thickness of the pipe are 1422 mm and 25.7 mm,
respectively. According to the documented experimental studies of wide plate experiments for energy steel
pipelines, the geometric parameters of the wide plate specimen was determined (CRES, 2013; C-FER, 2017; Wang
et al., 2006, 2011; Wang and Hong, 2012). The crack in the girth weld was prefabricated along the circumferential
direction in the girth weld root of the inner wall of the wide plate by the electro discharge machining (EDM)
method. The crack was set to be 6 mm in depth and 25 mm in width as shown in Figure 1.

The outer arc

The outer arc width The girth width
620mm weld 780mm

540mm 2760mm 540mm

4000mm

2.0mm
The inner wall
of the pipe
Wall thickness
25.7mm 5.5mm

0.2mm

0.5mm

Figure 1 Dimensional design drawing of wide plate specimen and crack

In order to accurately monitor the variations of longitudinal strain in the wide plate, especially near the crack,
the strain gauge and the digital image correlation (DIC) testing system were both adopted to synchronously
monitor the deformation process of the plate during tensile test. The strain gauge arrangement on the plate and
DIC observation area (blue shaded area) are shown in Figure 2.
 580mm 310mm

126mm 126mm
225mm 351mm 126mm 126mm 276mm 276mm 126mm 126mm 351mm 225mm

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Strain gauge number
Parallel segment

Figure 2 Schematic diagram of strain gauge arrangement and DIC observation area

A 2000t hydraulic servo system in China National Engineering Laboratory for Pipeline Safety was employed
for the tensile loading. A displacement control system was used to simulate a quasi-static loading condition by
setting the loading speed to be 1.66 mm/min. The loading process was stopped when the tensile load drops 3%
after the maximum load. Figure 3 illustrates the full screen of the experiment process.

Figure 3 Photograph of the full-scale tensile test and monitoring system

2.2 Experimental results

Both the load-displacement responses derived by the hydraulic servo system and the strain results derived by
strain gauges and DIC were analyzed in this section. Figure 4 shows the load-displacement curve automatically
obtained by the hydraulic servo system during the wide plate tensile test. It can be readily derived that the tensile
load reached the maximum value of 9983.79 kN, when the displacement load reached 121.4 mm. After that, the
tensile load decreased with the increase of the displacement, and the test was terminated when the load dropped to
9400 kN.
Before the wide plate tensile test, the true stress-strain curves of materials in different areas were obtained in
the standard round bar tensile test of the test pipe section, and the axial tensile strength of the left base material
was 630 MPa. In the tensile test of wide plate, the maximum axial force corresponding to the axial stress was
about 634 MPa. After the wide plate tensile test, it can be observed that the wide plate sample necked near the
weld at the left side base metal, which proved that under the action of axial force in the wide plate tensile test, the
bearing capacity of the weld zone was greater than that of the left base metal.

9000 (121.4mm, 9983.7kN)

Load force / kN 6000

3000

0
0 40 80 120 160
Displacement of testing machine / mm
Figure 4 Load-displacement curve

During the wide plate tensile test, four strain gauges i.e. No. 1, No. 3, No. 4 and No. 8, failed to monitor the
strain values. Figure 5 shows the variation of strain values measured by other strain gauges during the test. The
strain gauges No. 2 and No. 5 were near the necking position of the base metal at the left side of weld joint.
Therefore, the strain values at those positions kept increasing during the loading process, and the increasing slope
was relatively steep, reaching the maximum range of the strain gauges after about 50 minites’ loading. The strain
gauges No. 6, No. 7, No. 9 and No. 10 were on the base metal axis on the right side, so the overall change of strain
at those positions were relatively uniform and slow. Results derived by strain gauge No. 6 was slightly greater
than those of other strain gauges because the strain gauge No. 6 is near the welding joint which was affected by
the crack.

4.5%
Number of strain gauge
No.2
3.6% No.5
No.6
No.7
2.7% No.9
Strain

No.10

1.8%

0.9%

0.0%
0 2000 4000 6000
Time / s
Figure 5 Strain gauge results

According to the strain contours derived by DIC on the wide plate, it can be obtained that at the initial stage
of the test, there was a slight strain concentration at the crack tip (Figure 6 (a)). This became more obviously
during the large deformation stage with the increase of displacement load (Figure 6 (b)). Simultaneously, due to
the difference in the strength of the base metal on both sides of the weld, after the wide plate structure yielded
locally, the longitudinal strain became more concentrated on the left base metal with lower strength (Figure 6 (b)
(c)).

（a）The initial loading stage

（b）The large deformation stage

 （c）The final necking stage

Figure 6 Axial strain distribution contour of DIC observation area

By comparing the data obtained from DIC test system and strain gauges No. 5, it can be seen that the
measurement results of both were very close (Figure 7). For strain gauge No. 5, it failed after reaching its upper
limit 4%. While the DIC results reflected the subsequent monitoring of the entire testing process.

10%
No.5 (strain gauge)
No.5 (DIC)
8%

6%
Strain

4%

2%

0%
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000
Time / s

Figure 7 Comparison of monitoring results deriveb by strain gauge and DIC

Variations of the crack mouth opening displacement (CMOD) at the precrack was obtained by DIC
monitoring system as. The strain data obtained from strain gauge No. 9 on the right base metal with higher
strength can be taken as the distal strain. As shown in Figure 8, it can be demonstrated that CMOD increased
slowly when the strain was less than 0.2%. When the strain was greater than 0.2%, the CMOD increase rate
increased. But it also can be found that the crack did not grow unsteadily and the CMOD did not rise sharply
during the entire tensile process as the tested wide plate was finally necked on the side of the base metal with
lower strength.

2.0

1.5
CMOD / mm

1.0

0.5

0.0
0.0% 0.5% 1.0% 1.5% 2.0%
Strain
Figure 8 Relationship between crack mouth opening displacement and axial strain
2.2 Finite element model for the wide plate
A FE model of half wide plate was established in this section, due to geometrical symmetry of the specimen.
Actual of stress-strain relationships of the left and right side base metals and welding metals were considered. The
crack was assumed to have a "CANOE" shape, which was recommended by a lot of document researches
(Canadian Standards Association, 2019; Wu et al., 2020). Since the crack did not propagate unsteadily in this test,
the static crack method was adopted to simulate the existence of crack-shaped defects in the position of the weld
toe at the root of the inner wall of the wide plate (Zhang et al., 2020). Details of the refined numerical model of
the full scale tensile experiment is illustrated in Figure 9.
Fine mesh was employed in the crack tip regions, as large plastic deformation occurs when tensile loading
was applied. In order to preferably simulate the passivation process of the crack, the modeling method of “key
hole” was adopted in the crack tip part (Wu et al., 2020). The key hole was divided into 32 elements in the circular
direction and 6 layers in the radial direction. This crack simulation method had been proved to be able to
effectively simulate the crack tip passivation behavior during the crack opening process, so as to accurately obtain
the corresponding fracture parameters CTOD. Other areas of the model were divided by relatively coarse mesh.
C3D8RH elements were used to improve the convergence of the model meshes. Finally, the model was meshed
into 62,604 elements with 58,454 nodes.

The base metal

on the Right
The base metal
on the left

Figure 9 Schematic diagram of the model

The material properties were set according to the properties of base metal on both sides and weld metal
obtained by DIC observation in the wide plate tensile test. The stress-strain curves of the base metal on the left
and right sides and the weld are shown in Figure 10.
 800

600

Stress / MPa
400

200
The base metal on the left
The base metal on the right
The weld
0
0% 1% 2% 3% 4%
Strain
Figure 10 True stress-strain curve

According to the symmetry of the structure, only half model was needed for the calculation. The symmetric
constraint was imposed on the YZ plane of the wide plate. Along the axial direction of the wide plate, two
reference points were established at both ends of the wide plate, and the kinematic coupling method was used to
couple the end faces of the wide plate respectively. The wide plate was simulated under tensile loading by
applying the displacement conditions to the reference point. The CMOD of the crack was extracted by a crack tip
opening displacement extracting program coded by PYTHON so as to directly compare with the test results. For
the circumferential crack, the fracture parameter value at the symmetric plane of the crack length direction was the
largest under the axial load, which was consistent with the output result of DIC test.

2.3 Comparison of numerical and experimental results

Based on the FE model established above, Numerical simulation of the wide plate tensile test was carried out.
Accuracy of the FE model was proved by comparing the numerical results with the experimental test results.
The comparison between the load-displacement response curve obtained through FE simulation and the test
results is shown in Figure 11. It reveals that the FE simulation results and the experimental results have a high
coincidence degree on the load-displacement curve, and the relative error of the FE simulation results was 0.95%,
which preliminarily proves the accuracy of the model.
 10000

7500

Load / kN
5000

2500
Test result
FE result
0
0 40 80 120 160
Displacement / mm
Figure 11 Load-displacement curve during tensile process

Comparison between the two relationships of CMOD and longitudinal strain of the wide plate is shown in
Figure 12, which confirms that the FE model can predict the local deformations of the crack quite well, especially
during the large deformation stage. In general, the modeling was carried out in accordance with the size of the real
wide plate specimen, and the material property curves of different areas were obtained from the standard round
bar (small-size) tensile test, without considering the heat affected zone of the weld. As a result, the FE simulation
result inevitably deviated from the real situation. The relative errors in the initial loading stage (longitudinal strain
less than 0.5%) may also be induced by the accuracy limitations of the hydraulic servo system. When the
longitudinal strain larger than 0.5%, the finite element result was in good agreement with the experimental result,
and the relative error of the strain was 5.6%, which fully proves the rationality of the FE model established in this
study.
2.0

1.5
CMOD / mm

1.0

0.5

Test result
FE result
0.0
0.0% 0.5% 1.0% 1.5% 2.0%
Strain

Figure 12 CMOD-strain curve during tensile process

With the advantage that DIC system can observe the strain field distribution of the entire surface of plate, the
experimental and numerical longitudinal strain distribution contours near the crack surface were compared.
Figure 13 (a) is the strain contour near the crack surface obtained by the DIC post-processing, and Figure 13
(b) is the strain contour obtained by FE simulation. It can be confirmed that the strain field obtained from the
simulation result was in good agreement with the test result in terms of the strain distribution and absolute value.
Both results show that the longitudinal strain field near the crack surface was not uniformly distributed and the
strength of the right base metal was higher than that of the left base metal. It is also shown that the axial strain
distribution at the center line of the wide plate was more uniform when the crack surface was far away from it.
Through the comparison of strain contours, the rationality of the numerical simulation model established in this
study was better explained.

（a）The result of DIC post-processing system （b）The result of finite element calculation
Figure 13 longitudianl strain contour near the crack surface

3 Numerical model for D1422 mm X80 pipe with cracks in welding joint
3.1 Geometry model
According to the metallographic diagram of D1422 mm welded joint with automatic welding process, the
geometric division of the weld material was determined. From a conservative point of view, considering that the
welding joint has the maximum 3 mm misalignment allowed by pipe industry (Zhang et al. 2020), and there are
four areas with certain differences in the material properties of the base metal (BM), the heat affected zone (HAZ),
the weld material (WM) and the root-welding material (RM). Therefore, the final geometric structure of the 3 mm
misalignment, double V-shaped groove welded joint was determined, as shown in Figure 14.

9.2mm
2mm
3mm

3mm 5°
3mm
5° WM
21.4mm

21.4mm

6.3mm
BM
BM

3mm
RM
crack 3mm

Figure14 Diagram of welded joint geometry and crack surface

3.2 Material Properties
In this paper, the strength matching coefficient (ζ) of weld material (WM) was defined by the ratio of tensile
strength of weld material (WM) and the strength of weld material (WM) (Canadian Standards Association, 2019;
Kibey et al, 2010; Liu et al, 2013; Wu et al, 2020; Zhang et al, 2020). The softening rate (μ) of heat affected zone
(HAZ) was defined by considering that the heat affected zone has the same hardening property as the base metal.
According to the different softening rates, the tensile strength of the heat affected zone was obtained by
multiplying the tensile strength of the base metal by (1-μ), and it is assumed the yielding-to-tensile ratios of base
metals and heat affected zone materials are the same.
By setting the tensile strength of the BM to be 625 MPa and the yielding-to-tensile ratio (λ) was 0.89, 0.91
and 0.93 respectively, the stress-strain curve of the BM can be determined via the Ramberg-Osgood model. For
HAZ, it is assumed that it had the same hardening characteristics and yielding-to-tensile ratio as the BM (Center for
Reliable Energy Systems, 2019). Considering the softening rate of 0%, 5% and 10%, the stress-strain curve of the

HAZ can be determined. The Ramberg-Osgood equation describes the stress-strain curve as follows:
n 1
 

    
E E  Y 
3.14
n （1）
1 
  Y / T
Where,  is the strain;  is the stress, MPa; E is the Young’s modulus 2.1×105 MPa; λ is the

yielding-to-tensile ratio;  Y is the yield strength, MPa;  T is the tensile strength, MPa; n is the stress

hardening index ; α is the yield offset coefficient.

For the WM and RM, the yield strength and tensile strength of the material have a certain relationship with
the hardening coefficient. After the property parameters of BM were determined, the Equation (2) given by CRES
(Liu, 2013) was adopted to obtain the stress-strain relationship of WM under different strength matching
coefficients. For the RM, ER70S-G root-welding material (yield strength 509 MPa, tensile strength 536 MPa) was
selected for calculation using the same stress-strain curve equation as that for the weld area.
nw
     
    0.005  Yw   
E  E    Yw 
2.58
nw  （2）
1  w 
1.17

w   Yw /  Tw =0.95

Where, λw is the yielding-to-tensile ratio of the weld material;  Yw is the yield strength of the weld material,

MPa;  Tw is the tensile strength of the weld material, MPa; nw is the stress hardening index of the weld material.
3.2 Crack simulation method and Finite Element Mesh
A surface crack defect at the interface between the root-welding material and the heat affected zone at the
welding joint was assumed, as this is the most possible crack type of X80 pipe encountered in industry. The size
of the crack was 25 mm×2.5 mm (length × depth), which is the largest size allowed in engineering practice (Wu,
2020; Zhang, 2020). The shape of the crack was also set to be "CANOE" shape (Canadian Standards Association,
2019). The validated static crack method was used to simulate the crack defect at the girth weld. Same as the
model in finite element verification of wide plate tensile test, the area near the crack tip were segmented and
encrypted (Figure 15) to improve the computational convergence and result accuracy. Concurrently, the rest of the
model were divided by coarse meshs.

Figure 15 Mesh of the area near the crack tip

3.3 Boundary conditions of the X80 pipe

Considering that the structure was subjected to tensile or bending load, according to the symmetry of the
model, a half model was established with symmetric constraints. Reference points were created at both ends of the
pipeline and coupled to both ends of the pipeline respectively. Translational or rotational boundary conditions
were applied to the reference points to simulate the effect of tensile or bending loads on the pipe. The FE model
has two loading steps. In the first step, an internal pressure of 12 MPa was applied to the pipeline; In the second
step, a tensile or bending load was applied to the reference points connecting to pipe ends. Finally, the FE model
of X80 pipe with automatic welding joint with a surface crack defect was established via code package ABAQUS
as shown in Figure 16. The total length of the model was six times the pipeline diameter to eliminate the influence
of the boundary effect (Wu, 2020; Zhang, 2020), and a total of 58454 nodes and 62604 C3D8RH elements were
included.
Bending

Tensile

Bending

Tensile

Figure 16 Schematic Diagram of Finite Element Model

4 Parametric analysis of strain capacity of mismatched welding joint of D 1422 mm X80
pipe
Parametric analysis was conducted to investigate influences of the material properties of the pipe and the
weld joint regions on the structural response of the crack in the considered D 1422 mm X80 pipe with wall
thickness equals 21.4 mm. The parameters include: the yielding-to-tensile ratio (λ) of the base metal (BM), the
softening rate (μ) of the heat affected zone (HAZ) and the strength matching coefficient (ζ) of weld material
(WM). The CTOD was used to represent the crack driving force under loading, which was compared with crack
initiation criteria 0.25 mm adopted in the Chinese pipeline industry to derive the strain capacity of the pipe.

4.1 Influence of WM’s strength matching coefficient

With the mentioned geometrical parameters of the weld the joint, the yielding-to-tensile ratio of BM was set
to be 0.89, softening rate of HAZ was set to be 10% in this section. Five strength matching coefficients of WM
was considered, i.e. 0.8/0.9/1.0/1.1/1.2 respectively. The pure tensile and bending loading types were both applied
to the pipe to study the influence of loading conditions.
Figure 17 illustrates the relationships of the CTOD and the longitudinal strain in pipe for the two loading
types. It can be derived that when the strain was less than 0.25%, the welded joint was mainly in the elastic stage,
the strength matching coefficients of the WM had little effect on the CTOD, and the crack growth driving forces
under all strength matching coefficients were almost the same. When the strain was greater than 0.25%, the
influence of the strength matching coefficients of the WM begun to appear. Under the condition of undermatching
(ζ = 0.8 and 0.9), the value of CTOD increased exponentially with the increase of the strain, and the CTOD
exceeded the permissible critical CTOD value while the strain increase was very small. This is mainly due to the
fact that the model considered the misalignment and the undermatching of the weld. The CTOD of the welded
joint decreased with the increase of the strength matching coefficient, which proves that the increase of the
strength matching coefficient can significantly improve the driving force of crack propagation.

0.75 0.75
BM's strength matching coefficient BM's strength matching coefficient
ζ = 0.8 ζ = 0.8
ζ = 0.9 ζ = 0.9
ζ = 1.0 ζ = 1.0
0.50 ζ = 1.1 0.50 ζ = 1.1
CTOD / mm
CTOD / mm

ζ = 1.2 ζ = 1.2

0.25 0.25

0.00 0.00
0.0% 0.5% 1.0% 1.5% 2.0% 0.0% 0.5% 1.0% 1.5% 2.0%
Strain Strain

（a）Tensile load （b）Bending load

Figure 17 Variation curve of CTOD with strain under different loading forms
 Taking 0.25 mm as the allowable maximum CTOD, the strain capacities of pipe were obtained, as shown in
Figure 18. It can be readily obtained that strain capacity of pipe under pure tensile load is much less than that
under pure bending load. Which means a longitudinal loading condition such as a pipeline under longitudinal
landslide load is more dangerous than a lateral ground deformation load, if the same strain demand was needed. It
also reflects that, with the considered yielding-to-tensile ratio of the BM and softening rate of HAZ, strain
capacity of pipe increases almost linearly with the strength matching coefficient.

1.5%
Tensile loading
Bending loading

1.0%
Strain

0.5%

0.0%
0.8 0.9 1.0 1.1 1.2
WM's Strength matching coefficient

Figure 18 Influence of load type on strain capacity

4.2 Influence of BM’s Yielding-to-tensile ratio

American Petroleum Institute standard (American Petroleum Institute, 2018) explicitly requires that the X80
pipe’s yielding-to-tensile ratio be no greater than 0.93. Analogously, in the study of the strain capacity of pipeline
(Canadian Standards Association, 2019; Fairchild et al., 2014; Tang, 2014; Wang et al., 2004; Wu et al., 2020), the
yielding-to-tensile ratio is a critical mechanical parameter to reflect the properties of BM. In this section, effects of
BM’s yielding-to-tensile ratio on the strain capacity was studied and discussed. The pipe was assumed to be under
pure tensile load, as this derives more conservative results. The softening rate of HAZ was set to be 10%, and all
the five strength matching coefficient of WM in Section 4.1 is also considered. Three possible Yielding-to-tensile
ratio for X80 high strength pipe steel was considered, i.e. 0.89, 0.91, 0.93, to study its effect of pipe’s strain
capacity. Trends of CTOD with longitudinal strain under the aforementioned conditions were extracted. Strain
capacity of the welded joint for all cases when CTOD reaching the critical value 0.25 mm was illustrated in Figure
19. It shows that the larger the yielding-to-tensile ratio of the BM is, the smaller the strain capacity will be, and
the lower the strain capacity of the corresponding welded joint will be. The influence of the yielding-to-tensile
ratio of BM is more obvious under evenmatching or overmatching condition (ζ = 1.0/1.1/1.2).
 1.2%
WM's strength matching coefficient
ζ = 0.8 ζ = 1.0 ζ = 1.2
ζ = 0.9 ζ = 1.1

0.8%

Strain
0.4%

0.0%
0.88 0.90 0.92 0.94
BM's yielding-to-tensile ratio
Figure 19 Influence of yielding-to-tensile ratio on strain capacity

In the case of the strength matching coefficient of WM was 1.2 and under the same displacement condition,
the displacement nephogram of the welding joint and the local axial strain nephogram of the weld (Figure 20) can
be clearly seen: when BM’s yielding-to-tensile ratio was 0.93, the deformation of the crack defect increased
significantly. The HAZ and WM of the welded joint absorbed more deformation under the load, resulting in a
larger strain at the weld seam, which increased the CTOD and led to a serious decrease in the strain capacity of the
welded joint.

(a) BM’s yielding-to-tensile ratio was 0.89

(b) BM’s yielding-to-tensile ratio was 0.91

 (c) BM’s yielding-to-tensile ratio was 0.93
Figure 20 Displacement nephogram of welding joint and local axial strain nephogram (yielding-to-tensile ratio of BM)

4.3 Influence of HAZ’s Softening Rate

In this section, effects of HAZ’s softening rate on the strain capacity of X80 pipe under tensile load was
studied. The yielding-to-tensile ratio of BM was set to 0.89. Five strength matching coefficients of WM was same
as section 4.2 were considered. Figure 21 illustrates trends of the strain capacity with the HAZ’s softening rate. It
is obviously that the softening of HAZ will reduce the overall strain capacity of the welded joint as strain
concentration in the welding zones becomes more severely with HAZ’s softening.

1.8%
WM's strength matching coefficient
ζ = 0.8 ζ = 1.0 ζ = 1.2
ζ = 0.9 ζ = 1.1

1.2%
Strain

0.6%

0.0%
0% 5% 10%
HAZ's softening rate

Figure 21 Influence of softening rate on strain capacity

Figure 22 shows the displacement nephogram of weld joint and local axial strain nephogram of different
softening rates of HAZ under the condition of strength matching coefficient of WM was 1.2 and the same
displacement. Under overmatching conditions (ζ = 1.2), the weld strength was higher, and the deformation was
mainly concentrated in the BM and the HAZ. At this point, with the increase of HAZ’s softening ratio, the whole
welded joint will bore greater deformation, so that the strain capacity decrease caused by the softening of the HAZ
under the action of high strength matching was more obvious. It also can be demonstrated that pipe’s strain
capacity in the case of overmatching (ζ = 1.1/1.2) and the most serious softening (μ = 10%) was still higher than
that in the case of undermatching (ζ = 0.8/0.9) with the lowest softening (μ = 0%) in HAZ. This indicates that
overmatching of WM should be adopted as far as possible in pipeline design, and its priority is higher than the
control of the softening rate of HAZ.

(a) HAZ’s softening rate was 0%

(b) HAZ’s softening rate was 5%

(c) HAZ’s softening rate was 10%

Figure 22 Displacement nephogram of welding joint and local axial strain nephogram (different softening rate of HAZ)

5 Critical Strength Matching Coefficient for the China-Russian Eastern Gas Pipeline
During the construction of the China-Russian Eastern Gas pipeline, the pipeline operator requests the
pipeline should have the tensile strain capacity no less than 0.5%. Based on the investigations conducted in
Section 4 in this study, proper material property requirements were derived and summarized for the D 1422 mm
X80 pipe with the maximum allowable misalignment (3 mm) in industry. Possible material conditions of the
welding areas have all be considered. Due to the pipe has less strain capacity under pure tensile loading, this
conservative result was listed. The required strength matching coefficients for the cases with various
yielding-to-tensile ratio of BM and softening rate of HAZ (0%, 5%, 10%) were listed in Table 1.
 Table 1 Critical strength matching coefficient of weld material for D1422 mm X80 pipe
Yielding-to-tensile Softening rate of Critical strength matching
Parameters
ratio of BM HAZ coefficient
Pipe size: OD1422 mm ×21.4 mm 0% 0.82
Internal pressure: 12 MPa 0.89 5% 0.87
Strain capacity requirement of welded joints: 0.5% 10% 1.00
Crack initiation toughness: 0.25 mm 0% 0.87
Loading type: tensile
0.91 5% 0.93
Yielding-to-tensile ratio of welding material: 0.95
10% 1.10
Misalignment: 3 mm
Crack location: the fusion line between RM & 0% 0.97
HAZ 0.93 5% 1.01
Crack size: 25 mm×2 mm 10% 1.12

6 Summary and Conclusions

A comprehensive experimental and numerical investigation was conducted in the presented paper to study
the strain capacity of D1422 mm X80 high strength steel pipes with possible mismatched welding joint with
misalignments. Full scale tensile wide plate experiment was performed by the hydraulic servo system in China
National Engineering Laboratory for Pipeline Safety. The wide plate specimen was cut from the largest gas
pipeline, i.e., the China Russian Eastern Gas Pipeline directly. A synchronous monitoring system with distributed
strain gauges and digital image correlation (DIC) cameras were successfully employed in capturing the pipe wide
plate’s deformation and the crack opening behaviors. A refined numerical model based on nonlinear FEMs was
established to inverse the experimental process, which proves that numerical simulation is capable of accurately
analyzed the fracture failure behavior of the pipe. After validation, a detailed 3D model for the D1422 mm X80
pipe considering its actual welding joint properties was established parametrically using the same modeling
technic. Based on numerical results, influences of the loading types, properties of the materials in welding joint
zone on pipe’s strain capacity was derived. Finally, critical strength matching coefficients for the China-Russian
Eastern Gas Pipeline were summarized which can be referenced by the pipeline operators directly. based on the
investigation some conclusions can be drawn:
1. The digital image correlation (DIC) technology can efficiently monitor both the general strain
deformation of the wide plate and the local crack opening behaviors. Unlike the strain gauge, DIC has
no limitations in the strain values.
2. Through numerical simulation inversion of wide plate tensile test, the results show that the relative error
between the load displacement response curve at the loading point calculated by the established finite
element model and the test value is 0.95%, which fully proves the rationality of the finite element model
and simulation method, and provides a reliable support for the subsequent finite element analysis and
calculations for D1422 mm X80 pipes.
3. The strain capacity corresponding to the welded joint under the tensile load is smaller than that under
the bending load, which indicates that the pipeline is more dangerous where subjected to pure tensile
loading if same strain demand is required.
 4. The larger the yielding-to-tensile ratio of base metal, the smaller the strain capacity. The lower the strain
capacity of the corresponding welded joint, and the effect of reducing the strain capacity of the welded
joint is more obvious under the condition of evenmatching or overmatching.
5. Softening of the heat affected zone will reduce the overall strain capacity of the welded joint, and the
decrease of strain capacity caused by the softening is more obvious in the overmatching than in the
undermatching.
6. Requirements of strength matching coefficients of weld zone for the China Russian Eastern Gas Pipe
were derived to ensure the pipe’s tensile strain capacity is no less than 0.5%.

Declaration of interests
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that
could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgements
This research has been co-financed by National Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 52004314), Beijing
National Science Foundation (Grant No. 8214053), Tianshan Youth Program (Grant No. 2019Q088), the Open
Project Program of Beijing Key Laboratory of Pipeline Critical Technology and Equipment for Deepwater Oil &
Gas Development (Grant No. BIPT2020005), Science Foundation of China University of Petroleum, Beijing (No.
2462018YJRC019, No. 2462020YXZZ045).

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