A Reconciliation of Experimental and Analytical Results for Piping Systems

摘要

This paper is focused on developing experimentally validated models of piping components as well as a complete two story piping system. The damage in a piping system is characterized in terms of "First Leakage" based on the observations made in laboratory experiments. Monotonic and cyclic testing for pipe components of various sizes shows that the limit-state for leakage is governed predominantly by flexural deformations at the threaded and groove fit T-joints. As a first step in the validation process, the nonlinear models for the flexural behavior of T-joints are reconciled with the experimental results. Next, the validated component models are incorporated in the piping model for a two story sprinkler system. The system level piping model is then integrated with ceiling systems that interact with sprinkler heads. The complex piping ceiling system model is validated by comparison with the corresponding experimental data.