Design, Development and Testing of Optimized Composite "Soft Crack Arrestors"

Emc2's proposal provided to DOT in response to SBIR Research topic 07-PH1 on "Design Optimization for Soft Crack Arrestors" focuses on the development of key material property data needed to design "soft crack arrestors". This testing will be done over a range of temperatures to cover extreme conditions for future pipeline designs. It is also essential to develop this data at the loading rates that arrestor will experience during a crack arrest event. With the material property data, the Emc2 crack arrestor design criterion will be used to design arrestors for subsequent full-scale validation tests in a Phase II effort. Emc2 also has the only high-energy full-scale burst test facility in North America for conducting large-diameter pipe fracture and crack arrestor experiments. The Emc2 staff has been involved in conducting high-rate laboratory testing, as well as full-scale pipe crack arrestor testing in a series of proprietary research programs for various pipeline companies. In prior testing, the Emc2 staff also developed and published a design criterion for crack arrestors based on strength considerations, whereas the new Emc2 patent for soft crack arrest covers ductility requirements as well.