Development of a new improved structural integrity assessment correlation for throughwall axially cracked 90° shape imperfect pipe bends under in-plane opening bending moment

In the present work, a systematic and detailed investigation on the plastic collapse load of 90 degrees structurally defected pipe bends under in-plane opening bending was performed using three-dimensional finite element (FE) analyses. The analysis considers the material behavior as elastic-perfectly plastic (EPP) with a large strain formulation option. The structural defects in the pipe bend models included were ovality at mid-portion and throughwall axial crack (TAC) at the crown portion. Ovality varied from 0 to 20 % with 5 % increment at each step while the normalized throughwall axial crack (TAC) parameter length a/D from 0 to 1 with an increment of 0.2 in each step. As per the recommendation of clause NB-3213.25 in Section III of ASME B&PV code, Twiceelastic slope (TES) technique was extensively used to determine the plastic collapse moment (PCM) for all simulated pipe bend models from their corresponding reaction moment versus angular rotation curve. The analysis illustrated that both ovality and throughwall axial crack (TAC) significantly affected PCM load of pipe bends and when combined, the effect was almost double. In pipe bend models with thin walls and short bend radius, both ovality and TAC were found to be more vulnerable and the effect decreased with an increase in bend radius and thickness. The experimental results for pipe bend's plastic collapse moment available in open literature were used to validate the present finite element (FE) procedure and a new improved structural assessment correlation proposed for pipe bends with ovality and TAC defects.

Automated summary

This study systematically investigated the plastic collapse load of 90 degrees structurally defected pipe bends under in-plane opening bending using three-dimensional finite element analyses. It was found that ovality and throughwall axial crack significantly affected the plastic collapse moment (PCM) of pipe bends, and their combined effect was almost doubled. The vulnerability of ovality and TAC defects decreased with an increase in bend radius and thickness in pipe bend models with thin walls and short bend radius.