Low-cycle fatigue experiments of short radius elbows were conducted and the recorded responses were compared with the long radius elbow responses from literature. Elbow components are widely used in piping systems in energy and chemical industries; however, the fatigue failure prediction of elbows remains a challenge. Additionally, the selection criteria between a long or short radius elbow merely considers the long radius elbow as standard, and to use short radius elbows only when spacing requirement prohibit a long radius elbow. The ASME design code provides some guidance for fatigue design of elbows but it is not known if the short radius elbow fatigue failures can be predicted. Hence, low-cycle fatigue experiments of short radius elbows were conducted and force, displacement, and strain data under cyclic loading were recorded. The recorded fatigue responses were critically analyzed for understanding the difference in fatigue lives between long and short radius elbows. These results are presented and discussed in the paper.
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