Session: 09-04-02 fracture and toughness for H2 pipelines

Paper Number: 134173

134173 - Hydrogen Pressure Cycling of Subscale Pipes to Simulate Full-Scale
Testing of Transmission Pipelines 

Abstract: 

Full-scale testing of pipes is costly and requires significant infrastructure investments. Subscale testing offers the potential to substantially reduce experimental costs and provides testing flexibility when transferrable test conditions and specimens can be established. To this end, a subscale pipe testing platform was developed to pressure cycle 60 mm diameter pipes (Nominal Pipe Size 2) to failure with gaseous hydrogen. Engineered defects were machined into the inner surface or outer surface to represent pre-existing flaws. The pipes were pressure cycled to failure with gaseous hydrogen at pressures to match operating stresses in large diameter pipes (e.g., stresses comparable to similar fractions of the specified minimum yield stress in transmission pipelines). Additionally, the pipe specimens were instrumented to identify crack initiation, such that crack growth could be compared to fracture mechanics predictions. Predictions leverage an extensive body of materials testing in gaseous hydrogen (e.g., ASME B31.12 Code Case 220) and the recently developed probabilistic fracture mechanics framework for hydrogen (Hydrogen Extremely Low Probability of Rupture, HELPR). In this work, we evaluate the failure response of these subscale pipe specimens and assess the conservatism of fracture mechanics-based design strategies (e.g., API 579/ASME FFS). This paper describes the subscale hydrogen testing capability, compares experimental outcomes to predictions from the probabilistic hydrogen fracture framework (HELPR), and discusses the complement to full-scale testing.

This work is supported by the United States Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy's Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Technologies Office, specifically the Pipeline Blending Corporate Research and Develop Agreement (CRADA) project (a HyBlend project). Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC., a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International, Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA-0003525. The views expressed in the article do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Department of Energy or the United States Government.

Presenting Author: Chris San Marchi Sandia National Laboratory

Presenting Author Biography: Dr. Chris San Marchi is a Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff at Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore CA. Chris and his colleagues are studying the interactions between hydrogen and materials, unraveling the complex nature of hydrogen’s effects on the performance of structural materials, in particular a collection of phenomena commonly referred to as gaseous hydrogen embrittlement. His research is motivated by the emerging deployment of hydrogen technologies to decarbonize the energy sector, such as hydrogen-powered industrial trucks, fuel cell electric vehicles and hydrogen blending into natural gas. Chris has co-authored over 100 conference and journal publications and several book chapters, providing the scientific and engineering basis for hydrogen-related codes and standards both domestically and internationally, including contributions to the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) as well as the UN’s Global Technical Regulation No. 13 for Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Vehicles. Additionally, Chris is the Sandia PI on the Hydrogen Materials Compatibility Consortium (H-Mat), an Energy Materials Network, sponsored by the US Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. Chris is also the Sandia PI on the Pipeline Blending CRADA (DOE HyBlend project), a multi-laboratory partnership with industry exploring the implications of blending hydrogen into natural gas infrastructure.

Authors:

Chris San Marchi Sandia National Laboratory
Joseph Ronevich Sandia National Laboratories
Benjamin Schroeder Sandia National Laboratories
Brendan Davis Sandia National Laboratories