Evaluation and instrumentation of the drop weight tear test
- S. Vervaet
- W. De Waele
Abstract
With the use of high strength and high toughness steels in the pipeline industry it has become necessary tobetter understand the factors which influence the reliability and integrity of oil and natural gas pipelines. TheDrop-Weight Tear Test (DWTT) is a common test method to determine the fracture appearance andfracture ductility of steel. Its fundamental purpose is to determine the appearance of propagating fracturesin steels over the temperature range where the fracture mode changes from brittle to ductile. But there arestill many subjects of discussion concerning which results must be obtained, in which manner they shouldbe obtained and how they should be interpreted. Is it still possible to deduce a shear appearance fromsamples which have such an abnormal fracture that they used to be discarded as invalid ? Could resultsfrom the DWTT be correlated with the Crack Tip Opening Angle (CTOA), which is particularly important forfinite element modelling ? What to think about methods such as the two specimen CTOA and the simplifiedsingle specimen method ? How severe is the effect of tunnelling in contemporary linepipe steels and howcan this be dealt with ? Many questions still remain and many aspects are still vague despite the correlatingecological, economical and safety issues. Therefore, there is a major necessity for further investigations.
How to Cite:
Vervaet, S. & De Waele, W., (2012) “Evaluation and instrumentation of the drop weight tear test”, International Journal of Sustainable Construction and Design 3(1), 52-58. doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/scad.v3i1.20556