Thermal analysis under static and fatigue conditions on HDPE

Abstract

High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) represents one of the best choices for water and gas distribution pipeline thanks to its light weight and good mechanical performance. One of the strengths of this plastic material is the possibility to join it via welding adopting a procedure according to the standard. However, the welding procedure can severally alter the mechanical performance of the material under service loads. In the present work comparison between virgin and welded HDPE specimens is carried out adopting rapid approaches, such as the Risitano’s Thermographic Method and the Static Thermographic Method, monitoring the evolution of the specimen’s superficial temperature under static tensile and fatigue tests. Mechanical performance has been compared, as well as the fatigue limit obtained with traditional fatigue tests, showing good agreement. Reliable fatigue data have been obtained in a very short amount of time and with few specimens by adopting Energy Methods.