Limit Load Analysis of As-Fabricated Pipe Bends With Low Ovality Under In-Plane Closing Moment Loading and Internal Pressure

Pipe bends are critical components in piping systems where their failure modes are quite different from straight pipes. The objective of the present work is to investigate the limit loads of pipe bends with actual As-fabricated shape obtained from pipe bending process as compared to bends with Ideal and Assumed imperfect shapes. The present work is conducted by using nonlinear finite element analysis and is performed in two steps. The first step is achieved by simulating rotary pipe bending process with ball mandrel to obtain the actual as-fabricated shape of the 90° pipe bend. The process simulation was verified against published experimental data. In the second step, the pipe bend is subjected to different combinations of simultaneous loads consisting of internal pressure and In-plane closing bending moment. Results are provided for limit load curves for pipe bends with as-fabricated geometries and bends with ideal shape and assumed geometrical imperfections.