Effects of Defect Size on Crush Test Load of Butt Fusion Welded MDPE Pipes

Abstract

It is expected that the size of welding defect affects the mechanical performance of welded medium density polyethylene (MDPE) pipe joints. In this study, butt fusion welded MDPE pipe joints with a single spherical or planar defect of various sizes were studied using experimental crush testing and also by finite element method. The crush test showed that the mechanical performance of crush was not affected by the size and geometry of a single welding defect when the defect size was increased to 45% of the pipe’s wall thickness. The simulation results indicated that the effect of the single welding defect on the Von Mises stress distribution near the defect explained the reason of the test results.