Abstract
Large engineering structures made with the use of sophisticated technology often include material defects and geometrical imperfections. These defects or imperfections do not exert their influence on the initial behaviour of structures designed in accordance with standard rules. Under the action of loading varying in time, however, they can reveal themselves in long-term operation by the initiation and growth of a fatigue crack from a defect root. Similarly, stress corrosion (SC) cracks can develop in a structure when there is an initial stress concentrator and the structure is exposed to both mechanical stress and a corrosion medium. A condition for the growth of a small fatigue crack is that the level of cyclic stress should be above the limit value given by barriers existing in a steel, and a condition for the growth of SC cracks is that the stress is greater than a certain limit value for a specific corrosion medium. It is important to pay due attention to the behaviour of cracks under various gas pipeline loading conditions in different environments, and to the influence of these conditions on the residual strength and life of the gas pipeline. The existence of a crack in the wall of a high-pressure gas pipeline mostly implies a shortened remaining period of reliable operation.
Original document
The different versions of the original document can be found in:
- https://www.intechopen.com/citation-pdf-url/41468 under the license cc-by
Document information
Published on 01/01/2012
Volume 2012, 2012
DOI: 10.5772/51804
Licence: Other
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