Transient dynamic crack propagation in gas pressurised pipelines

The prime limitation of dynamic fracture analysis is the lack of a fundamental crack advance theory which can be easily and economically adopted for use with numerical models. The necessity for the inclusion of inertia effects in the solution of certain problem classes is now evident, but most transient dynamic fracture models considered to date include (of necessity) some intuitive/empirical parameters with a frequent need of a priori knowledge of experimental solutions. The particular problem considered in this study is Mode I transient dynamic crack propagation in gas pressurised pipelines. The steel pipe is modelled using thin shell Semiloof finite elements and its transient response is coupled to a one-dimensional finite element model of the compressible gas equations, incorporating a lateral gas flow parameter. The pipe is governed by the usual dynamic equilibrium equation which is discretised in the time domain by a central difference explicit algorithm. The compressible gas response is modelled by the Continuity and Momentum equations and time discretisation is performed by means of a fully backward difference scheme in time. (orig./GL)