Stress assessment in piping under synthetic thermal loads emulating turbulent fluid mixing

Thermal fatigue assessment of pipes due to turbulent fluid mixing in T-junctions is a rather difficult task because of the existing uncertainties and variability of induced thermal stresses. In these cases, thermal stresses arise on three-dimensional pipe structures due to complex thermal loads, known as thermal striping, acting at the fluid-wall interface. A recently developed approach for the generation of space-continuous and time-dependent temperature fields has been employed in this paper to reproduce fluid temperature fields of a case study from the literature. The paper aims to deliver a detailed study of the three-dimensional structural response of piping under the complex thermal loads arising in fluid mixing in T-junctions. Results of three-dimensional thermo-mechanical analyses show that fluctuations of surface temperatures and stresses are highly linearly correlated. Also, surface stress fluctuations, in axial and hoop directions, are almost equi-biaxial. These findings, representative on cross sections away from system boundaries, are moreover supported by the sensitivity analysis of Fourier and Biot numbers and by the comparison with standard one-dimensional analyses. Agreement between one- and three-dimensional results is found for a wide range of studied parameters. The study also comprises the effects of global thermo-mechanical loading on the surface stress state. Implemented mechanical boundary conditions develop more realistic overall system deformation and promote non-equibiaxial stresses. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.