This can be a serious issue in cryogenic services. Carbon steel equipment and pipe is liable to fail—even when there is no load on it—if its temperature falls below −20°C. This can occur, for example, if a cryogenic liquid such as liquid air enters a carbon steel flare header. ...
The fracture condition is determined so that the fracture stress ascertained in a 4-point-bending experiment is defined as the maximum bearable tensile stress. The statistical theory according to Weibull is applied to transform this fracture stress onto the type of stress occurring during the cooling...