Constraint analysis of defects in strength mismatched girth welds of (pressurized) pipe and Curved Wide Plate tensile test specimens

Curved Wide Plate (CWP) specimens are often considered to evaluate the tensile strain capacity of girth weld defected pipelines. However, to date no comparison has been made between the constraint in CWP and (pressurized) pipe specimens. This paper reports on the evaluation of the constraint through three dimensional finite element simulations. At first, it is observed that the internal pressure marginally increases the out-of-plane constraint. Second, the CWP specimens appear to closely represent the constraint in pipe specimens for homogeneous as well as strength mismatched situations. CWP specimens become increasingly conservative to pipe specimens with increasing defect dimensions.