Upper Shelf Fracture Toughness for Carbon and Low Alloy Steels

Master Curve is unsuitable as a model for the upper shelf because the toughness increases
without bound with increasing temperature. Therefore, a model for the upper shelf is required
to limit the Master Curve toughness. Two options are provided in API 579-1 for the upper
shelf fracture toughness (Kmat-US) model. The models are applicable to carbon and low-alloy
steels.

Option A: Rolfe-Novak Correlation, which is function CVN and yield strength of the material.

Option B: It is based on empirical relationship developed by Wallin [12] that relates the
upper shelf Chary impact energy to the J-integral at 1 mm (0.039 inches) of ductile tearing
(J1mm). This correlation has a 17% coefficient of variation (COV) on the J1mm estimate. A
median and 5% lower-bound correlation are provided to estimate the upper shelf fracture
toughness (Kmat-US).