Special Finite Elements for Piping Elbows and Bends at High Temperatures with Creep

摘要

The OmegaPipe software performs global stress analyses and remaining life predictions for piping systems operating at elevated temperatures. Since the remaining life of a component in the creep range is highly sensitive to applied stress, an accurate stress analysis is crucial to obtaining a meaningful life estimate. Due to the geometrical and loading complexities of piping systems, detailed three-dimensional finite element analyses of piping systems are usually not practical. Thus, commercial piping programs typically utilize simple beam finite elements. However, these models do not adequately characterize the stress distributions that can occur in piping. In particular, piping elbows experience complex deformation modes such as ovalization and warping.