Pipe fracture studies under compliant bending
Fracture studies were carried out on 18 numbers of 219 mm diameter of SA 333 Gr. 6 carbon steel straight pipes and elbows having through-wall crack under four point bending. The investigations have shown that the load carrying capacity of the pipes under finite compliance (fixed end condition) increases when compared to infinite compliance (simply supported condition). The load carrying capacity of the pipes under finite compliance weakly depends on the initial crack angle whereas the load carrying capacity of the pipes under infinite compliance strongly depends on the initial crack angle. The safety margin is quite large particularly with a stiff piping system. This benefit in terms of increase in safety margin from LBB point of view is due to the moment redistribution.
