SAND2015-9931C

Fatigue testing methodologies in

gaseous hydrogen

Chris San Marchi

Paul Gibbs, Joe Ronevich, Brian Somerday
Sandia National Laboratories
Livermore CA

SAND2015-
1
 Outline
• Fracture Mechanics Evaluation using fatigue crack
growth testing to determine inspection interval or
design life

• Structural Stress Methods to determine design life

• Pneumatic Pressure Cycling of full-scale

components to determine design life

2
 ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code
Section VIII, Division 3, Article KD-10
Fracture mechanics approach to hydrogen
pressure vessel and pipeline design,
using fatigue crack growth analysis

Critical crack size from fracture toughness (KTH)

ac X
Flaw size, a

Evolution of crack size

pressure
calculated from
da/dN vs K
ao

Number of pressure cycles, N Nc

Method based on BPVC VIII.3 Article KD-4

3
 Trends for fatigue crack growth are consistent for
a broad range of pipeline steels

4
 Pressure effects on fatigue crack growth are
modest (except perhaps at low ∆K)

5
 Power-law fit to bounding behavior in hydrogen is
used to behavior to predict crack evolution

6
 Consider X70 pipeline

Dimension and materials

OD = 762 mm
Operating
t = 12.7 mm
conditions
YS ~ 480 MPa
Pmax = 7 MPa
TS ~ 585 MPa
Pmin = 4 MPa pressure

Maximum nominal hoop stress = 204 MPa

• 35% of Tensile Strength
• 42% of Yield Strength
7
 Crack evolution in X70 pipeline is relatively slow
for low cycling
1 cycle per day =
3650 cycles per 10 years

Semi-elliptical cracks

8
 Fracture mechanics approach has limits

• Long lives require

∆K < 10 MPa m1/2
- Hydrogen effects
are modest in
area of interest

ac X
Flaw size, a

Crack Crack • Crack growth method

initiation growth
?? KD-10
ignores crack initiation
- Initiation can be
ao
majority of life
Number of pressure cycles, N Nc

9
 Outline
• Fracture Mechanics Evaluation using fatigue crack
growth testing to determine inspection interval or
design life

• Structural Stress Methods to determine design life

• Pneumatic Pressure Cycling of full-scale

components to determine design life

10
 ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code
Section VIII, Division 3, Article KD-3
Structural stresses calculated and
compared to design S-N curves to
determine design life pressure

Pipe: OD = 762 mm
t = 12.7 mm
Operating pressure:
Pmax = 7 MPa
Pmin = 4 MPa
ASME design curve: carbon and low alloy
steels with UTS = 620 MPa
11
 Fatigue loading for pressure applications

Proposed testing condition to simulate pressure loading

• R ≥ 0 (tension-tension)
• Notched specimens to account for stress concentration

stress
R = Smin / Smax frequency

Smax
Sa>0

Smin
time

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 Notched fatigue test methodology proposed in
CSA CHMC1 standard
SF0=NTSR/NTSH Reference (air)
Hydrogen
SF3=SR/SH
Stress amplitude, S

SF4=SR/SH

SF5=SR/SH

• Safety factor
multiplier
or
• Fatigue analysis
1 100 104 106
Number of pressure cycles, N using properties
measured in
hydrogen
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 Tension-tension fatigue testing facilitates data
generation on hydrogen
• Notched tension-
tension fatigue
• Strain-hardened
type 316L
- Ni = 12.04 wt%
- YS = 589 MPa
S* = YS (1-R)/2
S* = 265 MPa

• Fatigue life curve is affected by hydrogen

• Similitude of the notch to engineering stress concentrations
needs further analysis (hydrogen-enhanced notch sensitivity?)
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 Lack of harmonization of test methods to
support structural stress analysis for hydrogen
• Conventional fatigue
testing:
- R = -1
- Smooth specimen
• Fatigue applied to hydrogen
- Tension-tension loading
- Notched specimen
Effect of mean stress:
 S 
S*f  S f 1 m S 
 u
Effect of notch:
Sf
S Nf  Kf

Methods exist to explore similitude between methodologies

15
 Outline
• Fracture Mechanics Evaluation using fatigue crack
growth testing to determine inspection interval or
design life

• Structural Stress Methods to determine design life

• Pneumatic Pressure Cycling of full-scale

components to determine design life

16
 Full-scale pressure cycling of pressure vessels
• Two pressure vessel designs from different
manufacturers
• Nominal hoop stress at P = 43.5 MPa
- T1 design: ~340 MPa
- T2 design: ~305 MPa
• Steel for both pressure vessels designs: 4130X
• Quench and tempered, 1 wt% Cr - 0.25 wt% Mo
• TS for transport applications: 700 to 900 MPa
- T1 design: ~750 MPa
- T2 design: ~850 MPa

Typical design rule: maximum wall stress <40% of TS

T1 design: 300 MPa
T2 design: 340 MPa
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 Hydrogen pressure cycling of pressure vessels
Consider 35 MPa gaseous hydrogen fuel system
• Nominal pressure of 35 MPa
• Allow 25% over-pressure during rapid filling
• Minimum system pressure of ~3 MPa

Pressure cycle for testing

• maximum P = 43.5 MPa
• 2-minute hold at maximum P
• rapid depressurization to 3 MPa
• 30-second hold at minimum P
• pressurization time ~ 2 min

4 to 5 minute cycle time

(~300 cycles per day)
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 Engineered defects used to initiate failures

Engineered defect
(10 per vessel)

V-notch in profile
Nominal root radius
Elliptical engineered defect 0.05mm
Aspect ratio = 1/3 (depth/length) (actual ~0.12mm)

Depth of engineered defects

• Typically all 10 defects similar for a given vessel
• Smallest defects ~2% of wall thickness
• Largest defects ~10% of wall thickness
• For one vessel, aspect ratios were 1/2 and 1/12
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 Commercial pressure vessels exceed lifetime
target of 11,250 cycles by >3 times
• Each pressure vessel
with engineered
defects contains 10
nominally equivalent
defects

• Arrows indicate
pressure vessels that
did not fail

• In failed vessels, all

defects initiate a crack

• All four failures were

T1-07
T1-10

T1-08

T2-04

leak before burst

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 All observed failures are leak-before-burst mode
At failure, pressure vessel “slowly” leaks
gas into secondary containment

Through-wall crack cannot

be detected visually

21
 Through-wall crack extend from “critical”
engineered defect
T1-07
wall thickness

engineered defect

T1-10
wall thickness

22
 Cracks extend from all engineered defects

Growing (non-through-wall)
cracks have semicircular profile
Through-wall crack

Same size engineered defect

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(same vessel)
 Fatigue crack growth of Cr-Mo PV steels in
gaseous hydrogen is similar to pipeline steels

3 heats of 4130X steel all show approximately the same behavior

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 Comparison of fracture mechanics evaluation to
full-scale pneumatic experiments
• Curves are predictions
based on crack growth
only (of semicircular flaw)
• Arrows indicate vessels
that did not fail

• Fracture mechanics
predictions underestimate
experiments for all defect
sizes
• Conservativeness of
fracture mechanics can be
restrictive for small
defects

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 Comparison of structural stress method to full-
scale pneumatic experiments
• Observed full-scale behavior
is consistent with design
curves
• Assessment of design
requirements enables
definition of appropriate
design space
- TS < 890 MPa limits
stress amplitude to
<230 MPa
Design
- Required design life
<11,250 cycles space

Result:
conservative design space relative to
established structural stress method ASME design curve: carbon and low
alloy steels with UTS = 620 MPa
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 Summary
• Fracture mechanics evaluation using fatigue
crack growth provides conservative design life
– does not account for crack initiation
– Relevant ∆K < 10 MPa m1/2
• Structural stress methods can be applied for
hydrogen with appropriate data
– Fatigue curves in hydrogen need to be determined
– Harmonization of methods needs to be verified
• Pneumatic pressure cycling methods have been
standardized
– Limited validation to support design by analysis
methods
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