A neutron diffraction and magnetic Barkhausen noise evaluation of defect-induced stress concentrations

This thesis studies the effect of altering both the drilling technique (mechanical drilling vs. Electro-Chemical Milling) and the sequence of defect introduction and load application on the defect-induced stress distributions in sections of line pipe steel material. The defect-induced stress concentrations in loaded samples with defects introduced whilst loaded (in-situ) and prior to the application of load (pre-drilled) were examined using both neutron diffraction and Magnetic Barkhausen Noise (MBN). These results indicated the presence of potentially large levels of residual stress particularly in the in-situ sample. This is believed to be a result of plastic deformation being introduced by the mechanical drilling process. Similar studies on ECM defects showed no signs of drilling-induced stresses.; Experimental stress distribution results from the in-situ and pre-drilled samples were compared to those predicted using a three-dimensional finite element model solution. The overall level of agreement was found to be best for the pre-drilled sample case.; The study also aimed to determine the effectiveness of MBN as a non-destructive method for characterizing line pipe samples. Results of an initial experiment are presented showing the effectiveness of MBN for performing quantitative strain analysis on samples. This was determined by comparing MBN-measured stress concentrations with those predicted by theory and reported in the literature.; Magnetic Flux Leakage (MFL) tests were also performed on the samples in order to examine any stress-induced differences in MFL response. It was found that the differences in stress distribution between the in-situ and pre-drilled samples were also reflected in the trend of the MFL signal amplitude and shape as a function of applied stress.; The original work in this thesis includes the first definitive test of the effects of the order of load application and defect introduction on the resulting stress distributions around through-wall holes in plate samples. This effect will have implications for the more accurate sizing of defects and the determination of optimum operating pressures for in-service pipelines. In addition, a comprehensive study is included of the various factors effecting MBN signals from ferromagnetic samples, factors which will influence its wide-spread application as an NDE technique.