Abstract

HANS BRACAMONTE, Johane; MARTINEZ, Manuel  and  GONZALEZ, Marco. Determination of the applicability range of the boundary element method in the study of piping elbows. Rev. Fac. Ing. UCV [online]. 2008, vol.23, n.2, pp.45-54. ISSN 0798-4065.

Stress indexes and bend flexibility factors, for in-plane and out-plane bending moments applied to piping elbows, were calculated using the Boundary Element Method (BEM). This method has proved to be very effective in the elastic study of semi-infinite solids, thick wall solids and even thin walled shells. The objective of this work is to determine the range of applicability of the BEM to the analysis of cylindrical thin walled shells and non-linear geometries, in this case piping elbows, objects of particular industrial interest. For this study, nine models of elbows with commercial geometries were used, all were meshed using an identical quantity and distribution of nodes and elements. The total number of elements was chosen in a way that the time consumed were competitive in comparison with other methods. The results of the simulations were compared with the analytical expressions found in the codes, and with the expressions corrected by the factors proposed by Thomas (1981). These results indicates that the BEM its applicable in a range of the diameter thickness ratio between 10 and 23.

Keywords : Boundary Element Method; Stress Index; Flexibility factor; Piping elbows; Pipe bends.