Evaluating on the Effects of Circumferential Thinning Angle and Bending Load on the Failure Pressure of Wall-Thinned Elbow through Burst Tests

This study performed burst tests using real-scale pipe elbow containing simulated local wall-thinning to evaluate the effects of circumferential thinning angle and bending load on the failure pressure of wall-thinned elbow. The tests were carried out under the loading conditions of internal pressure and combined internal pressure and bending loads. Three circumferential thinning angles, , and different thinning locations, intrados and extrados, were considered. The test results showed that the failure pressure of wall-thinned elbow decreased with increasing circumferential thinning angle for both thinning locations. This tendency is different from that observed in the wall-thinned straight pipe. Also, the failure pressure of intrados wall-thinned elbow was higher than that of extrados wall-thinned elbow with the same thinning depth and equivalent thinning length. In addition, the effect of bending moment on the failure pressure was not obvious.