LAUSR

Abstract Commonly, fracture toughness tests on deeply cracked specimens are used to assess defects in large-scale components. The paper presents a method for selection of test specimen type, size and crack length in order to obtain fracture toughness estimates relevant to defects in cracked pipes. The method uses available closed-form T -stress, stress intensity factor and limit load solutions to determine the required specimen dimensions. The paper reports elastic–plastic finite element analyses for single edge notched bend (SENB) and single edge notched tension (SENT) specimens and cracked pipes which demonstrate good agreement of the matching approach, although care is needed in selecting the appropriate limit load solution for SENT geometries.