Low-Constraint Toughness Testing of Two SE(T) Methods in a Single Specimen

Single-edge notched tension (SE(T) or SENT) specimens has been increasingly proposed as a low-constraint toughness test to measure toughness of line pipe materials, as the crack tip constraint approximates a circumferential surface flaw in a pipe under loading. The clamped SE(T) single-specimen procedures recently developed by Shen and Tyson [1, 2] and Tang et al. [3] have in common the use of a clamped single-specimen of similar geometry and rely on unloading compliance technique for crack size estimation. In the former case, a single clip gauge is attached to the integral knife edge and the crack-tip opening displacement (CTOD) is estimated by means of a J-integral-to-CTOD conversion, similar to the procedure of ASTM E1820. The latter uses a pair of clip gauges mounted to an attachable raised set of knife edges to estimate CTOD at the original crack tip position by a triangulation rule. Consolidating these two sets of clip gauges in a specimen makes direct comparisons of two SE(T) methods on identical test conditions: material, specimen geometry, equipment, test temperature and operator [4]. In this study, SE(T) testing employing these two SE(T) methods on a single specimen was conducted on BxB shallow-cracked (a/W∼0.35) specimens of two x70 pipeline girth welds. This paper discusses the details of two SE(T) methods and techniques on the same specimen.