Cryogenic Fracture Characterisation of High-Grade Pipeline Steels Using the Dynamic Tensile Tear Test Equipped with a Large-Surface Spray Cooling System

In contrast to traditional impact-based testing, the Dynamic Tensile Tear Test (DT3) has shown great potential to characterise high-grade pipeline steels as it mimics the in-field pipeline conditions. However, material characterisation using the DT3 method has only been performed at room temperature and lower-shelf characterisation has not yet been investigated.

This study investigates a solution to perform low-temperature characterisation and analyse dynamic brittle fracture behaviour using the DT3 setup.

A large-surface spray cooling system using liquid nitrogen was constructed and implemented onto the DT3 system. Cooling performance and temperature uniformity were assessed using thermocouples across a large surface area up to 412 cm² (2 × 206 cm²). Numerical validation was performed through Finite Element (FE) analysis using the Modified Bai-Wierzbicki (MBW) material model. A combined stress–strain criterion was used to take into account cleavage failure.

Temperatures down to -125 °C were reached using the spray cooling system and a fracture tests was performed at -80 °C. The obtained data and resulting fracture surface indicated clear brittle fracture behaviour. An average crack velocity of 152 m/s was measured, which is in the same order of magnitude associated with crack velocities observed in large-scale testing.

The constructed spray cooling system proved to be capable of cooling a large volume down to cryogenic temperatures while achieving acceptable temperature uniformity. Lower-shelf characterisation of X70 grade pipeline steel was achieved using the DT3 method and a good correlation was obtained between numerical data and experimental observations.