Low cycle fatigue of pressurized pipes with circumferential flaws under cyclic bending moment

Pipes of 706 mm inner diameter, 47 mm wall thickness and about 5,000 mm in length were provided with circumferential surface cracks and loaded by internal pressure of 15 MPa whilst being simultaneously subjected to an alternating external bending moment. Usually a load ratio R of -1 (Mmin/Mmax), in one case R = 0.1, was applied. The pipes were fabricated of two types of ferritic steel: one, grade 20 MnMoNi 5 5, with a high upper shelf impact energy of about 200 J and one, MnMoNiV-special melt, with a low upper shelf impact energy of about 60 J. Deformation and crack growth in the wall thickness and circumferential direction were determined and compared with calculated values. 9 refs., 13 figs