Proceedings of the 2012 9th International Pipeline Conference

IPC2012
September 24-28, 2012, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
IPC2012-90088
BLUNT CRACK INITIATION AND ITS TRANSITION TO SHARP CRACKS IN
PIPELINE STEEL IN NEAR-NEUTRAL PH SOLUTION


B. Fang
RAE Engineering and Inspection Ltd., Calgary,
Alberta, Canada, T2P 1A1
Environmental Corrosion Center, Institute of Metal
Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Shenyang, China, 110016
R.L. Eadie
Department of Chemical and Materials
Engineering, University of Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
T6G 2G6


M. Elboujdaini
CANMET Materials Technology
Laboratory
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
K1A 0G1


ABSTRACT

This paper reviews our research into pipeline stress
corrosion cracking (SCC) in near-neutral pH (NNpH)
environment to help understand the mechanisms on pit-to-crack
transition and early growth to contribute to pipeline integrity
management so that the risk of failure can be avoid or reduced.
Pitted specimens by using two different techniques
(passivation/immersion and electrochemical methods) were
cyclically loaded in NNpH environment sparged with 5% CO
2
/
balance N
2
gas mixture at high stress ratios (minimum
stress/maximum stress), low strain rates and low frequencies
which are close to the operational pipelines in the field. Blunt
cracks initiation was seen first and associated with the pit
geometry, and most of the blunt cracks were observed to have
initiated from the corrosion pits that had the pit depth to surface
width aspect ratios greater than 0.5. The blunt crack growth
was engendered by anodic dissolution, which was facilitated by
stress. So it was called as stress facilitated dissolution crack
growth. These blunt cracks had considerably large crack tip
width to crack mouth width aspect ratios, and the majority were
below 0.5 to 0.6 mm deep, and considered dormant. Once
cracks surpassed the critical value, around 0.5 to 0.6 mm, the
cracks would be reactivated and the crack tip width to crack
mouth width ratios became significantly smaller. Meanwhile,
more hydrogen would be trapped in the plastic zones. Thus,
hydrogen would play an important role in the crack
propagation. So in this stage, cracks tended to become sharp
and the mechanism was referred to hydrogen facilitated
cracking. The observations from the field can be interpreted
very well by using the proposed models. It was proposed that
two different mechanisms are responsible for the early-stage
crack growth and sharp cracks be removed to reduce the risk of
failure in pipelines.


INTRODUCTION

The first failure resulting from near-neutral pH stress
corrosion cracking (NNpHSCC) occurred in 1985
1
, and since
that time it has been investigated extensively
2 , 3 , 4 , 5
.
However, NNpHSCC is still an integrity threat for gas and oil
pipelines
4
and is an important issue for pipeline integrity
management and operation. It has been shown that cracks are
often seen to initiate at corrosion pits both in the field and in
the laboratory
6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11
. Corrosion pits are common
nucleation sites for environmentally assisted cracking,
especially SCC. For pipelines in the field, it generally takes
years for pits to grow and initiate cracks, and the pit growth
may proceed under intermittent exposure conditions
1
. Thus, it
would be difficult to study NNpHSCC processes under the
conditions found in the field. So an accelerating technique to
generate pits was employed in this study, the details of which
have been reported in another paper
12
. Basically it consists of a
1 Copyright 2012 by ASME
treatment to passivate the surface and then a second immersion
in hydrochloric acid, which leads to rapid pitting growth at
sites where the passive layer is either removed with a needle or
at innate weaknesses in the film where pits grow
spontaneously.
After the transition from pits to cracks has occurred in the
field, tiny blunt cracks, frequently in crack colonies, are often
seen in very large numbers
13
. The vast majority of these
small cracks are found to become dormant and hence tend to be
innocuous. However, if the small cracks can surpass a
threshold depth, around 0.5-0.6 mm
14, 15, 20, 21
, these cracks can
be activated and begin to propagate and may eventually lead to
pipeline rupture if not detected and removed. So studies
concerning the growth of these small cracks and how potential
growth can be identified and avoided will contribute
significantly to the understanding of NNpHSCC initiation and
help in pipeline risk and integrity management.

EXPERIMENTAL
The X-52 pipeline steel specimens used in this research
came from a pipe that was removed from service after more
than 30 years and showed NNpHSCC colonies
15
. Pits were
generated using the passivation/acid immersion method first
described in Reference 12. After pit growth, the specimens
were loaded in NNpH solution C2 (0.0274 g/L MgSO
4
-7H
2
O,
0.0255 g/L CaCl
2
, 0.0035 g/L KCl, 0.0195 g/L NaHCO
3
, and
0.0606 g/L CaCO
3
) and in aqueous soil solution (soil from a
failure site of a pipeline caused by NNpHSCC in Northern
OntarioCochrane, the ratio of the soil to distilled water was
1:5). The solutions were sparged with 5% CO
2
/balance N
2

gas mixture. One set of tests was cycled under a balanced
triangular waveform with a peak normal stress of 100% of
specified minimum yield strength (SMYS), a stress ratio
(minimum stress/maximum stress) of 0.8, a strain rate of
6.9310
-8
/s, and a frequency of 110
-4
Hz. Another set of
tests was loaded at a stress ratio 0.63, a peak normal stress of
100% or 106% SMYS, and a frequency of 7.5810
-5
Hz.
After loading in the solutions for six to eight months, the tests
were stopped and the samples were taken out. After cleaned
using EDTA and ethanol in ultrasonic cleaner, rinsing with
ethanol and drying, the sample surface observations were made
using optical microscopy (OM) and scanning electron
microscopy (SEM). Thereafter, samples were sectioned step
by step to examine crack and pit depths, and crack and pit
shapes. The sectioned surfaces were perpendicular to the
cracked and pitted surfaces, but along the loading directions.
After each grinding and polishing step, the measurement was
made using OM and SEM to reveal the crack and pit
dimensions. Statistics was employed to analyze the data to
reveal the pit shapes generated in this way
12
.
RESULTS AND DICUSSION

CRACK INITIATION IN NNpH SOLUTION
For cyclic loading in NNpH solution, blunt cracks
initiated around many corrosion pits, which were acting as
stress concentrators (micro-notches) and were the principal
sites for initiation. The pits would locally raise the stresses
near the pits. Thus, plastic deformation would occur locally,
and there would be plastic zones near the corrosion pits.
Extensive examination of these small cracks from field
specimens has never found sharp cracks mixed in with these
blunt cracks ruling out the possibility that the blunt cracks are
simply corroded out sharp cracks.
For the pitted samples cyclically loaded in NNpH
environments, the existing pits would also continue to grow in
size during exposure, which, in turn, would increase the extent
of the plasticity in the near-surface and possibly the stress
magnification. With these stress levels, it would be expected
that plastic deformation would occur in the high stress areas.
Now however, the process of electrochemical corrosion would
also occur. The iron atoms in the plastically deformed zones
would have enhanced energy levels because of the increased
dislocation density and increased stress, and would behave as
anodes in the solution relative to the less deformed and more
lowly stressed nearby regions. Thus, stress cells would form
leading to localized corrosion. So a preferential
electrochemical attack occurred in the regions where plastic
deformation was localized. The effect of stress levels and
plasticity on corrosion behaviour has been studied for this
system by Cheng
16,

17
and Mao et al.
18
and it has been shown
that plasticity is an effective mechanism to enhance dissolution.
Hence, dissolution in the plastic zones around the corrosion pits
was accelerated. This, in turn, would further enhance the
stress concentrations so that each cycle would create more
deformed material to be removed by further corrosion. In the
end, blunt cracks were initiated, as shown in Figure 1. Since
the stress cycle frequency was low, there was time for corrosion
during each cycle and the cracks grew appreciably after only
about 1,000 cycles. Since NNpHSCC cracks were mainly
formed by dissolution of localized plastic zones, this type of
crack was quite wide. See Figure 1c for a schematic of the
orientations of the specimens.

(a)
Loading direction
(a)
Loading direction

2 Copyright 2012 by ASME

(b)
Loading direction
(b)
Loading direction
Crack mouth width
Crack tip width
(b)
Loading direction
(b)
Loading direction
Crack mouth width
Crack tip width




Figure 1. Morphologies of NNpHSCC crack cross-section
features on the R-T surface cycled in NNpH solution sparged
with 5% CO
2
/ balance N
2
gas mixture in soil solution at a
frequency of 110
-4
Hz, a stress ratio of 0.8, and a peak stress
of 100% SMYS, and for 1345 cycles; (c) schematic of pipe
defining directions.


EFFECT OF PIT DEPTH-TO-WIDTH RATIO ON BLUNT
CRACK INITIATION

y = 0.3508x + 5.8967
R
2
= 0.8137
y = 0.4483x - 1.8304
R
2
= 0.7069
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400
Pit width, m
P
i
t

d
e
p
t
h
,

m
Non-cracking pits
Cracking pits
Linear (Non-cracking pits)
Linear (Cracking pits)

Figure 2. The distribution of pit depth versus pit width for non-
cracking and cracking pits on the radial-transverse surface in
C2 solution tested at a frequency of 110
-4
Hz, a stress ratio of
0.8, and a peak stress of 100% SMYS, and for 1345 cycles
15
.


The depth and width ratio of the pits were examined for
the R-T surface in C2 solution after loaded in C2 solution at a
frequency of 110
-4
Hz, a stress ratio of 0.8, and a peak stress
of 100% SMYS for 1345 cycles as shown in Figure 2 (crack
initiation on the different surfaces was addressed in a previous
paper
15
). The cracking pits tended to be the deeper pits at the
same pit diameter although the two populations overlap
somewhat. The regression line between the cracking pits
depth and width is at a ratio of 0.48; whereas, for the non-
cracking pits the regression is at a ratio of 0.35
-
. Thus the
deeper the pit for the same pit width, the more likely it is to
exhibit cracking. The aspect ratios (depth/width) for cracking
and non-cracking pits on the R-T surface are shown in detail in
Fig. 3 for different load conditions in soil solution. It is seen
that there is an upper limit to aspect ratio of uncracked pits of
about 0.7.


-
As noted in a previous paper
15
, the depth to width ratio is best fitted with
a lognormal distribution. If we test the difference in slopes between these two
populations (cracking and non-cracking pits) using a two sample Z test
assuming a log normal distribution, then it is found that the difference in slopes
is significant with a greater than 95% probability. This is true with or without
the very deep pits at the tail of the distribution.
3 Copyright 2012 by ASME


Figure 3. The aspect ratio (depth to width) distribution on the
radial-transverse surface for (a) non-cracking pits and (b)
cracking pits in solution at a frequency of 110
-4
Hz, a stress
ratio of 0.8, and a peak stress of 100% SMYS for 1345
cycles
15
.

The elastic stress concentration factor for an elliptical corrosion
pit is proportional to the square root of (a/)

, where a is the pit

depth, and is the radius of curvature at the bottom of the
corrosion pit
19
. Hence, the deeper the pits and the smaller the
radius of curvature, the larger is the stress concentration factor.
This could explain the observed blunt crack formation, since
the extent of the near-surface plastic strain would be larger in
deeper pits, which would promote the dissolution of the Fe
atoms. There is a little evidence that some pits with aspect
ratios below 0.5 might have had secondary flaws that decreased
the radius of curvature, , and contributed to plastic zone
formation.

Actual stresses if yield strength were exceeded would depend on the

effective K considering the blunting of the tip, but the elastic factor used here
serves to show the trend.
QUANTITATIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF BLUNT CRACKS
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
0 50 100 150
Crack depth, m
C
r
a
c
k

t
i
p

w
i
d
t
h
/
m
o
u
t
h

w
i
d
t
h
(a)
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
0 50 100 150
Crack depth, m
C
r
a
c
k

t
i
p

w
i
d
t
h
/
m
o
u
t
h

w
i
d
t
h
(a)
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
0 500 1000 1500 2000
Crack depth, m
C
r
a
c
k

t
i
p

w
i
d
t
h
/
m
o
u
t
h

w
i
d
t
h
(b)
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
0 500 1000 1500 2000
Crack depth, m
C
r
a
c
k

t
i
p

w
i
d
t
h
/
m
o
u
t
h

w
i
d
t
h
(b)

Figure 4. Crack tip width/mouth width versus crack depth for
X-52 steel sample in C2 solution at a frequency of 110
-4
Hz, a
stress ratio of 0.8, and a peak stress of 100% SMYS for 1345
cycles. (a) A-T; (b) R-T.

The crack tip width to mouth width ratio was defined here
as the ratio of the crack tip width to the mouth width on the
section. It was clear that the majority of the ratios were below
0.5, and likely concentrated at lower than 0.25. That meant
that these cracks were still very wide and blunt. Since most of
the pits were distributed around 0.5 (pit depth aspect ratio),
some blunt cracks almost had the same ratios as pits, which
was reasonably supported by the crack morphology in Figure
1b.
The crack aspect ratios on the A-T surface were seen to be
bigger than those on the R-T surface (Figure 4); the majority of
the aspect ratios on the A-T surface were between 0 and 0.5
while most were between 0 and 0.2 on the R-T surface, and
only small cracks had bigger ratios. Since there were a lot of
elongated non-metallic inclusions along the axial direction in
the middle wall of the pipe, their dissolution would assist crack
4 Copyright 2012 by ASME
formation and growth
20, 21
. Thus, the crack aspect ratios on
the A-T surface were bigger than on the R-T surface. On the
A-T surface, the most probable crack depth was in the range of
40 to 60 m, while most of the cracks on the R-T surface were
between 50 and 400 m (Figure 5).
20 40 60 80 100 120 140
0
5
10
15


N
u
m
b
e
r

o
f

C
r
a
c
k
s
Crack depth, m
(a)
20 40 60 80 100 120 140
0
5
10
15


N
u
m
b
e
r

o
f

C
r
a
c
k
s
Crack depth, m
(a)

0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800
0
5
10
15
20
25


N
u
m
b
e
r

o
f

c
r
a
c
k
s
Crack depth, m
(b)
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800
0
5
10
15
20
25


N
u
m
b
e
r

o
f

c
r
a
c
k
s
Crack depth, m
(b)

Figure 5. Crack distribution on (a) A-T and (b) R-T surface for
X-52 pipeline steel sample in C2 solution at a frequency of
110
-4
Hz, a stress ratio of 0.8, and peak stress of 100% SMYS
for 1345 cycles.


The characteristics of cracks in different solutions were
different. Although crack aspect ratios on the R-T in C2
solution were similar to those in the soil solution, the ratios on
the A-T surface in C2 solution seemed to be concentrated in the
small cracks (Figures 4 and 6). Figure 7 shows that the cracks
on the A-T surface were mostly distributed around 20 to 40 m
in depth while most of the crack depths on the R-T surface
were in the range of 50 to 200 m. Thus, it could be
concluded that the cracking and growth in the soil solution
were higher than in C2 solution. This was once again
consistent with the observations on cracking tendency in the
previous paper
15
.

0
0.5
1
1.5
0 50 100 150 200 250
Crack depth, m
C
r
a
c
k

t
i
p

w
i
d
t
h
/
m
o
u
t
h

w
i
d
t
h (a)
0
0.5
1
1.5
0 50 100 150 200 250
Crack depth, m
C
r
a
c
k

t
i
p

w
i
d
t
h
/
m
o
u
t
h

w
i
d
t
h (a)

0
0.5
1
1.5
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400
Crack depth, m
C
r
a
c
k

t
i
p

w
i
d
t
h
/
m
o
u
t
h

w
i
d
t
h
(b)
0
0.5
1
1.5
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400
Crack depth, m
C
r
a
c
k

t
i
p

w
i
d
t
h
/
m
o
u
t
h

w
i
d
t
h
(b)

Figure 6. Crack tip width / mouth width versus crack depth for
X-52 steel sample in soil solution at a frequency of 110
-4
Hz,
a stress ratio of 0.8, and a peak stress of 100% SMYS for 1345
cycles. (a) A-T; (b) R-T.
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200
0
10
20


N
u
m
b
e
r

o
f

c
r
a
c
k
s
Crack depth, m
(a)
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200
0
10
20


N
u
m
b
e
r

o
f

c
r
a
c
k
s
Crack depth, m
(a)

5 Copyright 2012 by ASME
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
0
10
20
30
40
50
60


N
u
m
b
e
r

o
f

c
r
a
c
k
s
Crack depth, m
(b)
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
0
10
20
30
40
50
60


N
u
m
b
e
r

o
f

c
r
a
c
k
s
Crack depth, m
(b)

Figure 7 Crack distribution on (a) A-T and (b) R-T surface for
X-52 pipeline steel sample in soil solution at a frequency of
110
-4
Hz, a stress ratio of 0.8, and a peak stress of 100%
SMYS for 1345 cycles.


When the stress ratio decreased (stress range increased),
the crack aspect ratios seemed similar, as shown in Figure 8a.
However, the depths for most cracks increased (50 to 450 m
for the R of 0.63 at a frequency of 7.610
-5
Hz and a peak
stress of 100% SMYS for 1394 cycles
15
, Figure 8b), revealing
that lower stress ratio would have higher cracking probability
and more growth, which was also in agreement with the
previous report
15
. Under the same conditions, a little higher
peak normal stress (Figures 8c and 8d) would also result in
similar crack ratios, but the crack depths distribution seemed to
be larger, in the range of 100 to 600 m (Figure 8d). So all of
the blunt cracks distributions and characteristics further
supported the conclusions in the previous paper that lower R
and higher peak stress increased the cracking.
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400
0.0
0.5
1.0


C
r
a
c
k

t
i
p

w
i
d
t
h
/
m
o
u
t
h

w
i
d
t
h
Crack depth, m
(a)
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400
0.0
0.5
1.0


C
r
a
c
k

t
i
p

w
i
d
t
h
/
m
o
u
t
h

w
i
d
t
h
Crack depth, m
(a)


0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
0
10
20
30
40


N
u
m
b
e
r

o
f

c
r
a
c
k
s
Crack depth, m
(b)
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
0
10
20
30
40


N
u
m
b
e
r

o
f

c
r
a
c
k
s
Crack depth, m
(b)

0
0.5
1
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500
Crack depth, m
C
r
a
c
k

t
i
p

w
i
d
t
h
/
m
o
u
t
h

w
i
d
t
h
(c)
0
0.5
1
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500
Crack depth, m
C
r
a
c
k

t
i
p

w
i
d
t
h
/
m
o
u
t
h

w
i
d
t
h
(c)

0 400 800 1200 1600 2000
0
10
20
30
40
50
60


N
u
m
b
e
r

o
f

c
r
a
c
k
s
Crack depth, m
(d)
0 400 800 1200 1600 2000
0
10
20
30
40
50
60


N
u
m
b
e
r

o
f

c
r
a
c
k
s
Crack depth, m
(d)

Figure 8. Crack tip width/mouth width versus crack depth (a)
and (c); and crack distribution (b) and (d); for X-52 steel
sample in C2 solution at a frequency of 7.610
-5
Hz, a stress
ratio of 0.63 and a peak stress of 100% SMYS for 1394 cycles
(a) and (b); and at a frequency of 7.610
-5
Hz, a stress ratio of
0.63 and a peak stress of 106% SMYS for 1394 cycles (c) and
(d).
6 Copyright 2012 by ASME


BLUNT CRACK GROWTH

The blunt crack initiation pits and the growth could be
modelled as effective cracks using linear elastic fracture
mechanics (LEFM). However, the pits and blunt cracks were
too wide at the bottoms or crack tips, so the stress intensity
factors for these defects would be somewhat smaller than the
ones corresponding to sharp cracks. Considering a semi-
elliptical surface flaw (pit or blunt crack) perpendicular to the
remote stress axis in a finite flat plate, the applied stress
intensity factor was assumed to follow the relationship
22
:
( , , , )
I
a a a c
K F
Q t c W
t
o | = (1)
Where a is the flaw depth, 2c is the flaw length, t is the
specimen thickness, W is the specimen width, and | is the
angular location along the elliptical crack front. | was
defined as 90
0
to calculate the stress intensity associated with
the deepest part of the localized blunt crack or pit site where
blunt SCC was or would be observed to initiate and grow.
The function Q is a shape factor for an elliptical defect,
1.65
1 1.464
a
Q
c
| |
= +
|
\ .
(2)
The function F is a boundary correction factor for a surface
defect and accounts for the influence of flaw shape, flaw size,
finite width, and angular location.
2 4
1 2 3
, , ,
W
a a c a a
F M M M f
t c W t t
|

| | | | | |
= + +

| | |
\ . \ . \ .

(
(
(

(3)

Where M
1
, M
2
and M
3
are curve-fitting functions, while the
function f
W
is a finite-width correction factor:

1
1.13 0.09
a
M
c
| |
=
|
\ .
(4)
2
0.89
0.54
0.2
M
a
c
= +
+
(5)
24
3
1.0
0.5 14 1.0
0.65
a
M
a
c
c
|
= +

\ .
+
|
|
(6)
1/ 2
sec
W
c a
f
W t
t
| |
= |
|
( \ .
(
(
y
(7)

Since the overall crack depths including the pits were small,
non-propagating blunt cracks (compared to the long fatigue
cracks exceeding the fatigue growth threshold), formed at the
pits might have overall depths which included the pits but did
not have the plastic wake history of cracks of the same depths.
The cracks would be contained within the plastic fields of the
pits. Thus, LEFM might not be applicable. However, if
effective flaw depth was employed, LEFM could still be used.
Kumar crack Equation was used in this study. The effective
crack depth
23
is

e
a a r = +
(8)
2
0
1 1
1
I
y
K n
r
n |t o
| | (
=
|
(
+

\ .
(9)
2
0
1
1
P
P
=
| |
+
|
\ .
(10)

Where |=2 for plane stress and |=6 for plane strain, o
0
is yield
strength, n is strain hardening index, P is load, and P
0
is limit
load. For the yield strength of 441 MPa and the Youngs
modulus of 207 GPa, n was 16.623. P
0
can be obtained from
reference
24
,

2 3 3 2
0 0
1.155 1 1.232 22 0.545 0.545
a a a a a a
P t
t t t t t t
o
(
| | | | | | | |
= + + < (
| | | |
\ . \ . \ . \ . (

L

(11)

where L is specimen gauge length. Thus, the flaw stress
intensity factor would be obtained.

It was clearly seen from Figure 9 that the crack growth rate was
somewhat higher than the pit growth rate compared to both the
cracking pits and non-cracking pits. Thus, the transition from
pit to blunt crack growth was determined by the rate
competition between the pit growth and blunt crack
propagation. But it could be said that the stress-concentrating
effect of corrosion pits was almost equivalent to that of blunt
cracks of similar depths. Under a critical condition, when
the blunt crack growth rate exceeded the pit growth rate, the
stress facilitated corrosion dissolution rate would be dominant
and thus, dissolution would be localized and localized
corrosion around the corrosion pits would be accelerated. In
the region of the blunt crack the pitting mechanism would no
longer control the crack growth. In the end, these blunt
cracks would survive and continue to grow whenever the
conditions were favourable. However, these blunt crack time-
based growth rates were very low, in the range of 10
-9
mm/s to
10
-8
mm/s, indicating that they would only lead to failure after
several years, whereas the corrosion fatigue mechanism may
begin when it would have faster growth rates. But their
growth period amounted to a large fraction of operation life.
So they were very important for pipeline operation and
management.

In practice, non-destructive evaluation would not usually detect
defects/blunt cracks below 1 mm in pipelines. It would be
7 Copyright 2012 by ASME
necessary then to establish a methodology for predicting the
likelihood of a blunt crack at the non-destructive evaluation
limit after a certain operation time. Upon such detection, the
requirement would be to determine crack growth rate kinetics
to establish the necessary periodicity of subsequent inspection
intervals and remaining life. The transition from pit to blunt
crack depended on the local environment, local mechanical
driving force and local material properties. As mentioned
above, the flaw growth rate in Figures 9 had already included
the mechanical effect, i.e. strain hardening and effective depth.
These would produce more accurate experimental data and
could be consistent with the observations from the field.

0.2 1
1E-5
1E-4
1E-3

Non-cracking pits
Cracking pits
Cracks
d
a
/
d
N
,

m
m
/
c
y
c
l
e
AK, MPa.m
1/2

Figure 9. Flaw growth rate versus stress intensity factor range
on the R-T surface for the sample cyclically loaded in the soil
solution at a frequency of 110
-4
Hz, a stress ratio of 0.8, and a
peak stress of 100% SMYS for 1345 cycles.


SHARP CRACK EMANATION FROM BLUNT CRACK AND
THE CHARACTERISTIC

When the blunt cracks that had initiated from the corrosion pits
grew deep enough, it was seen that another type of crack would
be nucleated. These cracks were very different from the blunt
cracks in morphologies. In fact, their crack faces almost
touched each other. They were very sharp at the crack tips
(Figure 10). So this type crack will be referred to as a sharp
crack or Stage II crack. In addition, these sharp cracks were
still perpendicular to the applied load direction, which was
different from the very short sharp cracks generated in fatigue
testing in air which were at 45 to the stress axis, as discussed
in a previous paper
15
.

(a) (a)

(b) (b)

Figure 10. Photomicrographs of NNpHSCC crack cross-section
feature on the R-T surface cycled in C2 solution loaded at
100% of SMYS, 0.0001 Hz and R of 0.8, showing (a) a blunt
crack at the bottom of the pit; (b) a sharp crack ahead of the
blunt crack.


When blunt cracks grew deep enough, they could surpass a
threshold, around 0.5 to 0.6 mm. Thereafter, the slow
growing blunt cracks would be accelerated in growth rate.
Since Stage II cracks were very sharp, anodic dissolution
would not be the dominant process in this stage. As the blunt
cracks grew deeper, the plastic zone would increase in size.
This would produce larger hydrostatic stress zones ahead of the
deeper cracks. Hence, more hydrogen would be trapped in
the larger plastic zones and could play an important role in
crack growth. So, for this stage, the crack growth mechanism
was likely to be hydrogen assisted cracking (HAC) instead of
dissolution, i.e. these results are consistent with the generally
accepted mechanism of hydrogen assisted cracking. In short,
there were two different mechanisms for early crack growth in
NNpHSCC. Before the threshold, around 0.5 to 0.6 mm deep,
referred to as Stage I, it was plastic-deformation-facilitated
dissolution that made wide blunt crack initiation from corrosion
8 Copyright 2012 by ASME
9 Copyright 2012 by ASME

pits and growth. After the threshold, called Stage II,
hydrogen was responsible for the subsequent sharp crack
growth. This is the first time these two different crack types
have been observed and reproduced in the laboratory. These
two different mechanisms are necessary for NNpHSCC crack
initiation and early growth. These are quite consistent with
the observations in the field. The sharp cracks in Stage II
create a significant risk to pipeline integrity. If they cant be
detected and removed, they will likely keep growing. Once
the long crack corrosion fatigue threshold is surpassed, the
cracks will grow much faster, even leading to pipeline rupture
or leakage. Compared to the long crack growth stage, the
blunt crack growth in Stage I and the sharp crack growth in
Stage II consume a majority of pipeline life. So Stages I and
II cracks and the transition between them are very important for
pipeline integrity management and risk management and
should be investigated intensively. Unfortunately, so far no
research has touched Stage I blunt cracks and little has paid
attention to Stage II sharp cracks, while most has focused on
long crack growth.

CONCLUSIONS
Blunt cracks were seen to initiate from the bottom of pits
under mild cyclic loading condition in NNpH environment, of
which the pit depth aspect ratios were generally higher than
0.5. The deeper the pit and the higher the ratio, the higher the
probability for pit-to-crack transition. The blunt cracks, formed
by stress facilitated dissolution, were actually wide and had
large crack tip width to the crack mouth width. Once these slow
growing cracks were accelerated in growth rates, more
hydrogen would be trapped in the tri-axial tensile zones ahead
of the cracks and play an important role in the crack
propagation. Thus, sharp cracks would be observed and the
mechanism was referred to hydrogen facilitated crack growth.
It was recommended that the sharp cracks be removed to
manage the risk of pipeline failure to an acceptable level and to
extend the pipeline operation life.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors would like to acknowledge an NSERC
Strategic Grant and Enbridge Pipelines Inc. for financial
support, and an NSERC/AUAF facility access grant at
CANMET Materials Technology Laboratory. The authors
thank Scott Ironside of Enbridge for the experimental pipeline
material.
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