Influence of In-Service Degradation on Strain Localization in Steel of Main Gas Pipelines.

General regularities in the failure kinetics of steel of main gas pipelines (17GS) are established using the method of complete stress-strain curves, meanwhile in-service degradation of metals is taken into account. The influence of material degradation on material properties under static tensioning is considered using two independent approaches: the phenomenological model of damage accumulation in metals, and the fractographic analysis method. The accumulation of in-service damage is found to increase a degree of material opening and lead to partial "embrittlement" of the steel matrix due to the microdefects accumulation in the vicinity of metal cracking caused by hydrogenation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]