International Journal of Impact Engineering 36 (2009) 12591268

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International Journal of Impact Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijimpeng

Experimental study and numerical simulation of pipe-on-pipe impact

J.L. Yang a, *, G.Y. Lu a, T.X. Yu b, S.R. Reid c
a

The Solid Mechanics Research Centre, Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 37 Xueyuan Road, Beijing 100191, PR China Department of Mechanical Engineering, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong c School of Engineering, Fraser Noble Building, Kings College, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB24 3UE, UK
b

a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history: Received 7 August 2008 Received in revised form 28 April 2009 Accepted 1 May 2009 Available online 9 May 2009 Keywords: Pipe-on-pipe impact Experiments Catapult setup Numerical simulation Energy partitioning

a b s t r a c t
Experiments and numerical simulations were conducted to investigate the dynamic response in a pipeon-pipe impact event, in which a missile (swinging) pipe with one end hinged and the other end free impinges on an orthogonal simply-supported/clamped target pipe at its centre. This study focuses on the effects of the impact location on the missile pipe and the wall thickness of the pipes. The experiments were carried out by using a spring-powered catapult impact setup, the specimens used were made of seamless steel pipes of two different thicknesses, 1 mm and 3 mm respectively, and the target pipes were clamped. Seven tests were carried out using the catapult. Numerical simulations using the explicit nite element code LS-DYNA were performed on an HPC360 workstation for each of the seven test cases. The results of the experiments and numerical simulations were compared, showing good agreement. Having conrmed the validity of the numerical model, numerical simulations were applied to the cases of a simply-supported target pipe, and the partitioning of the energy dissipation was calculated. As the response mode depends signicantly on the initial impact position, the evolution of the response mode was examined numerically as the point of impact on the missile pipe was moved from the hinged end to the free end. It was found that there is a particular impact location for which the target pipe was most seriously damaged using the same impact speed. 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction 1.1. Background Pipe whip is a safety-related issue for nuclear power and chemical plants, where pipes are often used to transport uids at high pressure and high temperature. If a pipe breaks, the jet escaping from the broken section could exert an intense reaction force, the blow-down force, on the broken pipe and the broken pipe could deform and undergo large dynamic deections and rotations (pipe whip) causing damage to adjacent pipes or equipment. If the whipping pipe strikes other pipes in the vicinity, it generates a pipeon-pipe impact (p-o-p-i), which may be responsible for a more serious chain of events. One step towards this is to better understand the consequences of a p-o-p-i event, which is the objective of the present study. Pipe whip itself is a complex process in general because the pipe is a deformable shell and, depending on the magnitude and duration of the blow-down force pulse, the deformation of the whipping pipe
* Corresponding author. Tel.: 86 1082317528; fax: 86 1082315606. E-mail address: jlyangbuaa@yahoo.com.cn (J.L. Yang). 0734-743X/$ see front matter 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ijimpeng.2009.05.001

can itself be complex. To understand the dynamic behavior of whipping pipes, a number of studies have been undertaken using experiments, theoretical modeling and numerical simulations. Most of the pipe whip studies have focused on straight, cantilever pipes. The work performed by the authors on freely whipping pipes involving large deections has been summarized in Reid, Yu, Yang and Corbett [1] (experiments and analytical modeling), Reid, Yu and Yang [2] (analytical modeling), and Reid and Yang [3] (analytical and computational modeling DYNA). In these papers, attention was focused on the inuence of the shell-like nature of the pipe, which leads to the beam-bending characteristics of the centerline of the pipe exhibiting elastic, plastic hardening and softening (ep-hs) as the pipes ovalise and sometimes collapse (kinking). Because of the dynamics of a whipping pipe, its deections can apparently exhibit strongly oscillating derivatives (see Reid et al. [2,3]). This feature of the e-p-h-s beam model has been recently the subject of renewed interest using mesh-free methods by Shaw, Roy, Reid and Aleyaasin [4]. P-o-p-i is generally more complex, having, generally, all the characteristics of pipe whip plus the interaction between the two deformable bodies (missile and target pipes) during the impact event. The emphasis herein is on the latter interaction.

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Notation dM ET EM h L Ld t Vi initial diameter of the missile pipe energy dissipated by the target pipe energy dissipated by the missile pipe wall thickness of the missile pipe length of the missile pipe distance between the impact point and the pivot pin; time impact velocity of the missile pipe at the impact point on the missile pipe diameter reduction of the missile pipe at the impact section diameter reduction of the target pipe at the impact section deection of the lowest generator of the target pipe at the impinging section angular velocity of the missile pipe

DdM DdT dT u

1.2. Previous work and outline of present study To study the p-o-p-i phenomena experimentally, the impact scenario was simulated in the present study by the simple event of a missile (swinging) pipe hinged at one end and free at the other end, energized by a spring in a catapult device (see below) impinging on to a clamped target pipe. For pipe-on-pipe impact, the severity of damage to the pipes is affected by many parameters involved in the impact event, such as the schedules (diameter to thickness ratios) of the missile pipe and the target pipe, the impact velocity, the kinetic energy of the missile pipe, and the material properties of both pipes, etc. In a classical set of experiments, Alzheimer et al. [5] developed an impact machine (similar to that used in this study) and conducted a series of p-o-p-i tests to study the rupture conditions for pipes with different schedules. Their results indicated that the occurrence of failure (and damage in general) is very much dependent upon the energy available at impact. Baum [6] described the pipe damage resulting from the impact of a whipping pipe on a nearby pressurized pipe, which was supported in one of three ways, viz hinge-xed, xed-free (cantilever) and fully supported along the whole length. The work was a by-product of a study of the motion of a whipping pipe. Baums results again illustrate the inuence of whipping pipe energy, impact position and support type on the damage sustained by the target pipe. For a p-o-p-i, both the missile pipe and the target pipe can deform signicantly since both are deformable bodies. Yu, Yang and Reid [7] and Yang, Liu and Reid [8] rst studied this class of problem in the context of beam-on-beam impact. For p-o-p-i, local deformation (indentation) will occur in the impact zone, and the crosssections of the pipes could possibly deform due to ovalisation/ kinking caused by beam-like bending. Because of the effect of the cross-sectional deformation, the longitudinal bending moment curvature characteristic of pipes could exhibit softening after the bending moment reaches its maximum value, the softening behavior depending on the interaction between the material properties and the attening of the cross-section, see Reid, Yu and Yang [2]. Apart from the works of Alzheimer et al. [5] and Baum [6], the dynamic characteristics of a p-o-p-i have not been studied in detail, and therefore it was seen as important to explore systematically the

effects of the various parameters in this event. Among these, the impact location on the missile (swinging) pipe is of importance but its effect on the dynamic response has not yet been studied. The impact location on the missile (swinging) pipe can be dened by the distance between the impact point and the hinged end. In the present paper, the dynamic response and damage caused when a missile (swinging) pipe, whose axis is perpendicular to a simplysupported or fully clamped pipe, strikes the centre of a target pipe are considered. In the experimental study described below, as well as examining the basic features of p-o-p-i, the impact location is varied while other impact conditions remain the same. The effects of wall thickness and impact speed are also studied as part of the programme. The investigation was divided into three stages. Experiments in which a missile (swinging) pipe struck a clamped pipe (target pipe) were carried out rst. Secondly, numerical simulations of these impact scenarios, identical to the experiments were performed using the commercial nite element code LS-DYNA [9], and the results obtained were compared with the experimental data. This process tested the validity of numerical model. Finally, the numerical model of a rotating missile pipe impinging an orthogonal, simply-supported tubular beam was explored for various impact locations on the missile pipe whilst the other conditions were kept the same. From the numerical simulations, the energy dissipated in the target pipe during impact and in the local indentation zone of the impinging pipe was calculated for different impact conditions. These data could be valuable for evaluating the safety of a piping system. Additionally, a more comprehensive understanding of the dynamic behavior in pipe-on-pipe impact is achieved. 2. Experiments The experiments were designed to identify the phenomena associated with a missile pipe impinging on to a target pipe and to explore the effects of the wall thickness of the pipes and the position of impact on the missile pipe on the dynamic behavior, especially the failure modes, of the target pipe. The impact test rig is shown in Fig. 1. It is comprised of a springpowered catapult, which consists two parts. The rst part is a rotating pipe system, in which one end of the pipe is hinged (i.e. pin-ended) and the other end is free. Between the missile pipe and the base, there were several simple springs which store elastic energy under tension and impart an angular velocity to the missile pipe when the pipe is released. The second part is the target pipe, which is clamped to two rigid supports. In the impact tests, the impinging point was always located at the mid-span of the target pipe, but, by moving the axis of rotation of the missile pipe, was arranged to be at different locations on the missile pipe. The speed of the missile pipe at the point of impact was measured and the strain history at the target pipes surface close to the point of impact was recorded during the test. After the tests, some target pipes were sectioned in the longitudinal and circumferential directions at the contact point in order to observe and measure the deformation of the pipe wall, providing information about the local deformation and any change in the bending rigidities of the pipes. 2.1. Experimental apparatus and test procedure The impact tests were carried out on the spring-powered device installed at Taiyuan University of Technology, China. Fig. 1 shows a sketch and a photograph of the experimental setup. The target pipe was clamped to supports, which were xed to the steel base. The missile pipe shown is 45 mm diameter. Holes of

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Fig. 1. Simple sketch and photograph of the experimental setup.

10 mm diameter were drilled through the missile pipe near the supporting end. A pivot pin was inserted through the holes and was clamped to steel supports that were xed to a rigid steel base, providing a pinned pivot for the end of the missile pipe, see Fig. 2 for details. Helical coiled springs were connected to the rigid base and to the missile pipe. When the pipe was rotated using a pulley system attached to the free end of the missile pipe, the springs were extended and, on release of the pulley, exerted pulling forces on the missile pipe, and imparting angular velocity to the pipe about the pivot. The springs become unstretched before impact and, having accelerated the missile pipe up to its chosen angular velocity, play no further part in delivering energy to the missile pipe. After release the missile pipe rotated about the pivot pin and struck the target pipe at its mid-span. The plane of motion of the missile pipe was perpendicular to the axis of the target pipe. The number of springs and their pre-extension were altered according to the impact speed required. Two rolled steel angle beams were used to ensure that the missile pipe moved in the prescribed plane and impinged on the target pipe at its mid-span. The impact point on the missile pipe was changed from case to case by adjusting the position of its pivot. For each test, the velocity of the missile pipe at the instant of impact was measured by recording the time interval for the missile pipe to cut through a photocell beam. The pipes used in tests were seamless steel pipes with chemical compositions and mechanical properties given in Table 1. The stressstrain curve of the pipes material under tension is shown in Fig. 3. Two different schedules were used. For the purpose of validating the modeling procedure described below, two series of tests were performed, primarily to reveal the effects of the pipe wall thickness on the dynamic response. In Series I (tests 12), steel pipes of 3 mm in wall thickness and 45 mm in outside-diameter were used as the missile pipes and 1 mm wall-thickness pipes with 44 mm outside-diameter were used as the target pipes. In Series II (tests 47), both the missile and target pipes were 1 mm wall thickness and 44 mm outside-diameter. In the following text, 3 mm wall-thickness and 1 mm wall-thickness pipes are referred as thickwalled and thin-walled ones, respectively. For both Series I and II the target pipes were 840 mm in length and about 760 mm in the span between its supports. The target pipe is xed to its supports. The test results show that the axial movement of target pipe was negligible for the impact energies appropriate to the present tests. Thus the target pipes can be regarded as clamped.

Due to the elasticity of the pipes, two or even more collisions possibly occurred during the impact process. In Series I, since thickwalled pipes were used as the missile pipes and thin-walled pipes as the target pipes, plastic deformation did not occur in the missile pipes. Only the target pipes were deformed plastically. In Series II, both missile and target pipes were thin-walled and considerable plastic deformation occurred in both pipes. As noted above, whilst the impact location on the target pipe was maintained at its centre, the point of impact on the missile pipes was changed from one test to another. Since the initial diameter of the pipe is known, this time interval was recorded and the impact velocity of the missile pipe determined. Two strain gauges were attached to the target pipe near the impact point in the axial and circumferential directions, respectively, to record the straintime histories in the pipe wall. The signals acquired by the strain gauges were amplied through a dynamic strain amplier (type YE5852) and sent to a TDS420A data storage oscilloscope. The images of missile pipes during the collision were recorded by Kodak Vidicon (type CR2000) high speed video. The Vidicon records at 2000 frames per second. The reduction in diameter and the bend angle of the centerline of the pipes at the impinging sections were measured and the pipes were sectioned in the axial and circumferential directions after tests.

Fig. 2. Photograph of the pivot pin.

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Table 1 Chemical composition and mechanical properties of the pipes. The thin-walled pipes Chemical components C Content (%) Yield stress ss (MPa) Axial direction Circumferential direction The thick-walled pipes Chemical components C Content (%) Yield stress ss (MPa) Axial direction Si Mn 0.49 P 0.013 S 0.014 Ni 0.050 Cr 0.050 Cu 0.15 Si Mn 0.56 P 0.018 S 0.008 Ni 0.030 Cr 0.070 Cu 0.10

0.19 0.19

Ultimate stress sb (MPa) 368 504 367 519

Maximum elongation d (%) 27 27

Youngs modulus E (GPa) 207

0.22 0.22

Ultimate stress sb (MPa) 340 490

Maximum elongation d (%) 32

Youngs modulus E (GPa) 207

The relevant initial parameters of the missile pipes and the local impact velocity for each test case are given in Table 2. As shown in Table 2, the angular velocities of missile pipe for Case (1)Case (6) were about the same, thus their initial kinetic energy was at the same level. The initial kinetic energy for Case (7) is comparatively higher than the other cases. 2.2. Experimental results In order to have an overall view of the p-o-p-i phenomenon, the lmed images of pipes during the collision shown in Fig. 4 for a typical collision case may be examined. In these, all the geometrical parameters of pipes were the same as Series I and the angular velocity is 5.4 rad/s. It can be observed that the initial local deformation occurs rstly on the target pipe in the impinging zone. As the local indentation increases, the impinging section becomes a kink, and the two pipe segments adjacent to the kink rotate about it. Between 20 ms and 25 ms a separation between the missile pipe and the target pipe can be clearly observed. Since the recording time was short, the subsequent collisions in the latter stages of the impact process were not recorded. The lm does however show that, over the duration of the impact the interaction of the two pipes is somewhat intermittent. After the tests, as overall measures of deformation, the diameter reductions of the missile and target pipes at the impact section, DdM and DdT respectively, and the deections of the lowest generator of the target pipes at the impinging section, dT, were measured, and listed in Table 3.
600 500 400 300 200 100 0

As Cases (1)(2) belong to Series I, in which a thick-walled pipe struck a thin-walled pipe, the magnitudes of DdM are nearly zero, but DdT and dT are rather large. Cases (4)(6) belong to Series II, in which a thin-walled pipe strikes another thin-walled pipe, so the magnitudes of DdT and DdM are comparable, but dT is very small, the plastic deformation being concentrated in local deformation rather than global, bending deformation of the target pipe. Case (7) also belongs to Series II but its initial kinetic energy was much larger than those of Cases (4)(6), thus the magnitudes of DdT and DdM are large, whilst dT is also. Some photographs of the deformed pipes in Cases (2) and (7) are shown in Fig. 5, in which serious local indentation in the target pipes and the global rotation about the impact point can be clearly observed. Fig. 5(a) and (b) shows photographs of the deformed target pipe in Case (2). Fig. 5(b) shows that the shape of the local indentation zone is approximately elliptical, the short axis being parallel to the axis of the target pipe and its length being shorter than the diameters of both the missile and target pipes. The target pipe segments also deformed outside the contact deformation area and the deformed zone extended some 23 times the pipes diameter. Plastic deformation does not appear in the thick-walled missile pipe. Photographs of the deformed missile pipe in Case (7) are shown in Fig. 5(c) and (d). Signicant local deformations and some global plastic rotation of the missile pipe are observed in these pictures. Both local and global bending deformations occurred in the target pipe but are not as notable as those in Case (2). It should be noted in Table 2 that the translational impact velocity and the wall thickness of the missile pipe and Ld are all different for Cases (2) and (7). Thus all these parameters apparently have signicant effects on the dynamic response mode of the two pipes. Some target pipe specimens after tests were dissected along the axial and circumferential sections, respectively, at the impact point in order to observe and measure the local deformation in more detail. Sections of the target pipes for Cases (1) and (2) are shown in Fig. 6(a) and (b), respectively. From the test results, it was deduced that the nal plastic deformation may be divided into two parts: local indentation at the impact-contact area, and the rotation of the pipe segments about the impinging point. In the impact-contact zone, the pipe wall collapses to form an elliptic, concave shell region, whose short axis is parallel to the axis of the pipe. The size of the local deformed zone varies with Ld as well as the magnitudes of angular velocity and wall thickness. The strain in the kink region was so large in many cases that the strain gauge peeled from the wall surface of the pipe and thus the straintime history did not always reect the strain variation after the stain gauge failed. Therefore there are only a few valid straintime curves obtained. The axial strain history at a location 35 mm away from the impinging point of the target pipe is depicted in Fig. 7, indicating that the strain increased

stress (MPa)

Table 2 The missile pipe parameters and local impact velocities. Test case (1) (2) (4) (5) (6) (7) L (mm) 1900 1900 1350 1350 1350 1350 dM (mm) 45 45 44 44 44 44 h (mm) 3 3 1 1 1 1 Ld (mm) 1600 1600 1077 678 365 365

u (rad/s)
7 6.13 6.04 6.05 5.75 9.86

Vi (m/s) 11.2 9.8 6.5 4.1 2.1 3.6

0.05

0.1

0.15

0.2

0.25

0.3

strain
Fig. 3. The engineering stressstrain curve from a simple tension test of the pipe material.

Note: L, dM, and h are the length, initial diameter and wall thickness of the missile pipe, respectively; Ld is the distance between the impact point and the pivot pin; u is angular velocity, Vi is impact velocity of the missile pipe at the impact point on the missile pipe.

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Fig. 4. Typical pictures taken by high speed Vidicon.

quickly during the rst 1 ms, then decreased dramatically and nally became negative.

3. Numerical simulation The numerical simulations were performed on an HPC360 workstation using the explicit nite element code LS-DYNA. FEMB was used as the pre-processor to generate the geometrical model and produce the mesh and also as the post-processor for results visualization and for plotting. The FE meshes for the missile and target pipes are shown in Fig. 8. In the numerical model, the boundary condition at the xed end of the target pipe was imposed by introducing xed nodes on the cross-sections. To simulate the hinged end condition for the missile pipe, the plane cross-section assumption was adopted, i.e., the cross-section at the hinged end remains plane during the entire collision process. In other words, a ctitious rigid body was attached to the hinged end having no mass and was allowed to rotate about the neutral axis of the cross-section freely. This method was proved successful. In general, the strain-rate effects should be taken into account in numerical analysis for high speed impact. As the impact speed considered in this paper is not very high, less than 5 m/s in most cases, the strain-rate effects could be ignored. However in order to examine this point, two impact cases, in which all parameters were identical except for the values of D and p in the CowperSymonds equation, were performed in the numerical simulations. We used D 40.4 S1 and p 5.0 to account for strain-rate effects in the rst case. These results were compared with the predictions of a rateinsensitive model in the second case. The stresstime curves given by FE analysis at the impact point were obtained for the two cases.

It was clearly observed that the trends of the stresstime history for the two curves were in good agreement. With the inclusion of strain-rate effects, the stresses in the impact region for the rst case were slightly larger than those without strain-rate effects in the second case. The maximum difference in magnitude between them was smaller than 5.3%. Furthermore, a comparison for the bending moment in axial direction of the impact pipes between the two cases shows that the maximum difference was within 6%. Therefore, according to the calculated results, it is concluded that strain rate does not have a signicant inuence on the impact stress nor on the structural response behavior for the impact speed range studied in present paper. Based on the engineering stressstrain curve derived from a simple tension test of the pipes material, shown in Fig. 3, an elastic, linear strain hardening plastic material model for the pipes was adopted which ts this curve closely. The nite element model is shown in Fig. 8, in which 4-node BelytschkoTsay quadrilateral shell elements are adopted with the total numbers of 7452 elements and 7544 nodes. In the region close to the impact point, the element meshes are dense, the element length along the axial and circumferential directions is

Table 3 Experiment results. Test case (1) (2) (4) (5) (6) (7)

DdM (mm)
0.0 0.0 1.3 1.5 4.4 14.4

DdT (mm)
23.7 21 2 1.5 1 7

dT (mm)
12 10 w0. w0. w0. 2

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Fig. 5. Photographs of the specimens after test.

3.478 mm and 2.902 mm, respectively, and the length of dense meshing region along the pipes axial direction is four times of pipe diameter. By considering the computational efciency and accuracy, the element meshes are sparse in the regions far away from the impact point, the maximum element length is 30 mm, and some median mesh sizes are necessarily used in the transition regions between the dense meshing region and sparse meshing region. The auto surface-to-surface contact condition was used in the simulation process [9]. The post-processor can generate the animation of the pipe-on-pipe impact process. By means of the animation, the evolution of the dynamic response of the pipes and the loci of their motions can be seen. 3.1. Numerical simulation of the experimental cases Numerical modeling was rst carried out to check if this approach simulated sufciently accurately the tests. The experiment and numerical simulation results of Cases (1), (2) and (4) are presented in Tables 3 and 4, respectively. Here comparisons are made between the key results of the experiments and their numerical simulations. In addition, the axial strain histories in the vicinity of the initial contact point for the target pipe for Case (4), obtained by numerical simulation and experiment, are depicted in Fig. 7, as the experiment data acquired were more complete for Case (4). It can be seen that the shapes of curves obtained by experiment and numerical simulation are reasonably consistent with the numerical curve displaying a 0.001 s time delay compared with the experiment. For

Case (4), the depth of the local indentation in the target pipe at the impinging point obtained was 2.0 mm by experiment and 2.1 mm by numerical simulation, see Tables 3 and 4. These results demonstrate that the numerical model adopted in this study simulated the pipe-on-pipe impact reasonably well, and could therefore be used with condence to study further the dynamic behavior of pipe-on-pipe impact events for other parameters. 3.2. Numerical study of the effect of impact location on missile pipe To study experimentally the pipe-on-pipe impact in a wider parameter range, considerable extra work would be required to modify the present experimental setup. However, using numerical simulations other pipe-on-pipe impact cases, e.g., longer pipes and higher impact speeds, etc. may easily be studied. In this section the dynamic response of a missile pipe impinging on to a simply-supported target pipe is studied numerically. Whilst identifying various aspects of phenomenon of p-o-p-i, attention is mainly paid to the effect of the impact position, as measured by Ld, the distance between the impact point and the pivot pin, when the other parameters remain constant. In the following numerical simulations, both the missile and target pipes are steel of 1 mm wall thickness and 44 mm in outsidediameter; the lengths of the missile and target pipes being 1350 mm and 900 mm, respectively, the same as those in Cases (4)(7), see Table 2. The angular velocity of missile pipe was taken as u 19 rad/s, higher than that in the experimental cases in order to exaggerate the effects of impact.

Fig. 6. The sectional view of the target pipe after test.

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experimental result computer simulation 0.0008

Table 4 Validation check of numerical simulations. Test case (1) (2) (4)

DdM (mm)
0.2 0.2 1.1

DdT (mm)
24.1 22 2.1

dT (mm)
12.5 10.4 0.0

0.0004

strain

0.0000

-0.0004

-0.0008 -0.004 -0.002 -0.000 0.002 0.004 0.006 0.008 0.010

time (s) ld=35mm, v=6.5m/s

Fig. 7. The experiment curves of straintime history in the vicinity of the impinging point of the target pipe.

Taking L 1350 mm, Ld 678 mm and u 19 rad/s as an example, the proles of missile and target pipes at typical moments are shown in Fig. 9. Fig. 9(a) shows axial proles of missile pipe at t 1.6, 3.15, 7.2, 12.2 and 17.7 ms, respectively, and Fig. 9(b) shows the axial prole of target pipe at t 17.7 ms. It can be seen that local deformations occurred on the impact sections of the missile and target pipes early in the contact and local collapse of the pipes wall developed gradually. As a result bending stiffness of these sections reduced signicantly. These sections become kinks, and the segments of the pipes adjacent to the kinks rotate about them. If Ld equals 365, 678 and 1077 mm, respectively, Fig. 10 gives the nal circumferential proles of the target and missile pipes respectively at the impact section. These proles show that the depth of the local indentation of the missile pipe decreases as Ld is reduced, while that of the target pipe exhibits the reverse tendency. To classify the response characteristics, the following modes are dened. If the missile pipe suffers serious plastic deformation and target pipe deforms only a little, the response mode is denoted as

Fig. 8. The FE simulation model.

Mode M; if the magnitudes of plastic deformations in both the missile and target pipes are considerable, this is denoted as Mode MT; if the plastic deformation occurs mainly on the target pipe and the missile pipe does not deform plastically, it is denoted as Mode T. For Ld 360, 570, 848 and 1258 mm, respectively, the nal axial proles of the missile and target pipes at the impact point are shown in Fig. 11. Fig. 11(a) and (b) depicts the nal proles of the pipes when Ld 360 mm. It is obvious that the missile pipe suffers serious plastic deformation while only small damage occurs on the target pipe. This is response in Mode M. When the impact point is moved towards to the free end of the missile pipe, the local indentation on the target pipe increases, a kink is formed gradually and rotation of the target pipe segments about the kink appears. The response mode now evolves as Mode MT. When Ld 570 mm the nal proles of the pipes are shown in Fig. 11(c) and (d). As the impact point moves further, the plastic deformation occurs mainly in the target pipe and the missile pipe essentially does not deform. The response mode becomes Mode T. Ld 848 mm provides a typical example of this mode, and its nal proles of the pipes are depicted in Fig. 11(e) and (f). When the impact point is located at the free end of missile pipe, the plastic deformation of target pipe decreases a little, and Mode MT response appears again. The nal proles of the pipes for this case are shown in Fig. 11(g) and (h). Local deformation occurs on both pipes, but the rotations of the pipe segments are small. When the impact point is located at the free end of missile pipe, the acceleration of elements of the missile pipe is proportional to the distance from the element to the pivot pin. Thus the inertia force distribution on the missile pipe is proportional to the distance too. The impact point, which locates at the free end of missile pipe, may be regarded as a support provided by the target pipe. In this case, the missile pipe behaves as a simply-supported beam subjected to linear distributed load along its axis. If the impact velocity is high enough, serious local deformation of the missile pipe may appear not only at the impact point but also at a section between the impact point and the pivot pin, where a new kinking collapse develops, see Fig. 12. When the target pipe is xed at both ends, a similar mode evolution in the dynamic response appears in the numerical simulations when Ld is increased. From the numerical results shown in Fig. 11, the two parts of the nal plastic deformation which appeared in the experiment, i.e., the local indentation at the impact-contact area, and the rotation of pipe segments about the impact point, can be seen in the numerical results as well. Using the numerical simulation, the energy dissipated by the target and missile pipes, denoted as ET and EM, respectively, can be calculated. The total available energy is just the initial kinetic energy of missile pipe. EM and ET include both plastically dissipated energy and kinetic energy in missile pipe and target pipe, respectively. The numerical results show that ET and EM vary with Ld, see Fig. 13. When Ld is about 300 mm the response mode is Mode M, thus ET is much smaller than EM. As Ld increases, ET increases and EM decreases rapidly, and the response mode becomes Mode MT. This change in the proportions of ET and EM continues with increasing Ld,

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Fig. 9. The axial prole of the missile and target pipes; L 1350 mm, Ld 678 mm, u 19 rad/s.

and the energy dissipated by the target pipe gradually becomes dominant, while the response mode evolves to Mode T. When Ld is between 750 and 1100 mm, the curves of both ET and EM are fairly at and reach their maximum values respectively. We may dene the segment between 750 and 1100 mm as a danger zone. If the impact point is located in this zone, the target pipe may suffer most serious damage for the same speed impact. The reason is that, when impact point on missile pipe locates in this zone, Mode T is most likely to happen, i.e. no kink forms in missile pipe and most energy is dissipated in target pipe. In relation to the safety relevant to the target pipe, the magnitude of its energy ET may be regarded as an index estimating the severity of the collision damage on the target pipe. As indicated

above, the energy dissipated consists two parts. The breakage of the target pipe occurs most likely at the impact section, thus the magnitude of the local deformation at the impact point may be used as a measure of the severity of damage to the target pipe. The reduction in the diameter of the target pipe at the impinging section, DdT, may be suggested as another index for the damage severity of the target pipe. Fig. 14 shows the variation of DdT with Ld. Comparing DdT in Fig. 14 with ET in Fig. 13, it is evident that the variations in the curves for DdT and ET are very similar. Since it is difcult to separate accurately the total energy dissipated into local deformation energy and global bending energy of pipes; we have to dene the local deformation energy articially. Thus it is proposed in this paper that the energy dissipated within

a
vertical distance (cm)

The target pipe

5 4 3 2 1 0 0 1 2 3 4 5 ld= 1077mm ld= 678mm ld= 365mm

b
vertical distance (cm)

The missile pipe 5 4 3 2 1 0 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 ld= 365mm ld= 678mm ld= 1077mm

horizon distance (cm) =19rad/s

horizon distance (cm) =19rad/s

Fig. 10. The numerical predictions of the circumferential proles of the missile and target pipes for impact at different impinging points, u 19 rad/s.

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Fig. 11. The numerical predictions of the deformed proles of the missile and target pipes for impact at different impinging points, u 19 rad/s.

Fig. 12. The numerical prediction of the axial prole of the missile pipe at high speed impact, u 50 rad/s, Ld 1126 mm.

the length of two diameters centered at the impact point is the local deformation energy. The internal energy of each element, including plastic dissipation and elastic strain energy, is calculated rst, and then the values of the internal energy for all elements are summed up to get the local deformation energy. The model shows that wherever the impinging point is, the local deformation energy is about 5/6 of the total deformation energy for the target pipe. That is to say that the energy is dissipated mainly in the kink region, i.e. the target pipe always experienced mainly local deformations for the conguration and impact load studied in this paper, and the plastic deection of pipe segments is relatively small. When the impact point is located at the central part of the missile pipe, the local deformation energy for the missile pipe is about 4/5 of the total.

30

25 140 120 EM ET 20

dT

dissipated energy (J)

100 80 60 40 20 0

dT (mm)

15

10

200
200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

Ld (mm)
Fig. 13. The energy dissipated in the missile and target pipes varies with Ld, u 19 rad/s.

Ld (mm)
Fig. 14. The reduction of the target pipe diameter at the impinging section varies with Ld.

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When the impact point moves to the free end, this ratio is about 1/5 to 1/3 for the missile pipe. This larger reduction in the local energy dissipation is attributed to the fact that the plastic deection in the middle part of the missile pipe becomes important, and if the impact speed is high enough, there may be a kinking collapse developed at central part of the missile pipe. 4. Conclusions Pipe-on-pipe impact is a nonlinear problem which involves complex phenomena such as impact-contact, variable contact force pulses, local collapse, cross-section attening due to local crushing and bending etc. The whole impact process displays the characteristics of inelasticity, large strains and large deections and it is therefore difcult to describe this complicated process by a simple mechanical model. In this study, experimental and numerical simulations were employed to clarify the underlying mechanics of the impact event and some valuable conclusions were obtained as follows: (1) The experiment results show that many factors affect the response mode of pipe-on-pipe impact. When a thick-walled missile pipe strikes a thin-walled target pipe, the missile pipe usually is not damaged while the target pipe deforms signicantly. If the missile pipe and target pipe have the same wall thickness, the response mode changes with the location of the impinging point and impact speed. The nal deformation of pipes may be divided into two parts: local indentation at the impinging section and rotation of pipe segments about the impinging section, where a kink forms. (2) The correlation between the numerical predictions by the FE code LS-DYNA and the experimental results from the present pipe-on-pipe impact tests shows that the numerical simulation properly predicted the dynamic plastic behavior of impact pipes, including the straintime history and depth of local indentation at the point of impact. The predicted response modes for both missile pipe and target pipe matched the experiment data with reasonable accuracy. (3) The numerical study shows that the location of the impact point on the missile pipe has a very important effect on the dynamic response mode and the energy dissipation partitioning, when other impact parameters remain constant. When both missile and target pipes are the same as that in Case (4) with the angular velocity of missile pipe, u 19 rad/s, higher than that in the experimental cases, the numerical results show that, as the impinging point moves from left (pivot pin end) to right (free end), the response modes evolve from Mode M, to Mode MT, to Mode T, and back to Mode MT again. Both the energy dissipated by the target pipe and the reduction of the target pipe diameter at the impinging section may play the role of an index for the damage severity of the target pipe. There is a dangerous impact location zone on the missile pipe. If the impact point is located in this zone, the target pipe may suffer its most serious damage at the same speed of impact. (4) Most of the energy is dissipated locally in the region of impact and at the kinking sections where the bending moment is

locally very high. This phenomenon should not be overlooked when developing a new model for pipe-on-pipe impact. Finally it needs to be pointed out that neither breakage of the missile nor of the target pipe was observed in our experiments, nor was the possibility of failure of the pipes considered in the numerical simulations. Both pipes could conceivably fail as the result of fracture of the pipe wall, leading to subsequent missile production, and even complete severance of the section of one of the pipes. If the strength of the missile pipe is much lower than that of target pipe, the impact damage may lead to breakage of the missile pipe and missiles may be ung out at high speed, with possible damage to nearby equipment or personnel. On the contrary, if the strength of target pipe is lower than that of missile pipe, impact damage to the target pipe may lead to possible failure and hence inuence the normal working of a pipe system in a nuclear power plant. Therefore, establishing a criterion to evaluate the capability of resisting impact force for both target and missile pipes is a very important future study in pipe-on-pipe impact. The core problem remaining in p-o-p-i is the better estimation of the contact force pulse shape and duration. This and the challenging issue of devising a reasonable theoretical model to explore the damage and failure mechanisms of the two pipes in pipe-onpipe impact for various structural and material parameters must await further studies.

Acknowledgements The work described in this paper is nancially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under grant number 10532020. The authors would like to gratefully acknowledge this support.

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