Dynamic Tear and Drop Weight Testing Services

Steel is the basis for some of the greatest construction projects in the world – bridges, skyscrapers, railroad tracks, and more. But, if the steel that holds these structures together is subject to brittle failure, they could just as well be made of pinewood.

With our dynamic tear and drop weight testing services, TÜV Rheinland offers you an inexpensive way to test the hardness and ensure that your steel isn’t subject to brittle failure when in service. Our experienced personnel can provide quick and accurate results with high-quality equipment that is both reliable and very accurate.

With our dynamic tear and drop weight testing services, you can:

• Ensure that steel used in the manufacture of line-pipe is not subject to brittle failure
• Gain a lead against the competition with neutral third-party certification
• Reduce the risk of company liability with documented safety standards
• Benefit from our experience and expertise
• Take advantage of TÜV Rheinland’s exclusive, one-stop service
• Ensure compliance with local government and legal requirements

TÜV Rheinland’s dynamic tear and drop weight testing services measure the fracture characteristics and fracture ductility of steel specimens according to API-recommended practice 5L3, EN 10274, ASTM-E 436, and “Pellini” – providing reassurance that the materials meet requirements.

Dynamic tear – this test involves a single-edge notched beam that is impact-loaded in three-point bending. The specimens are then fractured with a drop-weight machine, and the total energy loss during separation is measured using finely calibrated instrumentation and recorded based on time versus load data. This is a way of ensuring that steel used in the manufacture of line pipe is not subject to brittle failure when in service. It is one of a battery of tests that assess the suitability of steel for a particular application, another of which is the Charpy V-Notch (CVN) test, from which the upper shelf energy (USE) has commonly been used as a measure of the ductile fracture resistance.

Drop weight – a material cracks in a selected area of their tensile surfaces at the start of the test. During the test, a series of specimens is subjected to a single impact load at a progression of selected temperatures to determine the maximum temperature at which a specimen breaks.

The dynamic tear test is used on specimens ranging in thickness from 3/16 inch to 5/8 inch (5 mm to 16 mm). The pressed-knife procedure commonly used to sharpen the notch tip effectively limits this testing method to materials with a hardness of less than 36 on the Rockwell C scale.

Drop weight testing is used primarily to determine the nil-ductility transition temperature, or NDT, of ferritic steel of 5/8 inch in thickness and over.

And, if you are interested in TÜV Rheinland’s dynamic tear and drop weight testing services, you might also be interested in our weld testing services.