The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of structural deformations and bend angle on plastic collapse load of pipe bends under an in-plane closing bending moment (IPCM). A large strain formulation of three-dimensional non-linear finite element analysis was performed using an elastic perfectly plastic material. A unified mathematical solution was proposed to estimate the collapse load of pipe bends subjected to IPCM for the considered range of bend characteristics.
ABAQUS was used to create one half of the pipe bend model due to its symmetry on the longitudinal axis. Structural deformations, i.e. ovality (Co) and thinning (Ct) varied from 0% to 20% in 5% steps while the bend angle (ø) varied from 30° to 180° in steps of 30°.
The plastic collapse load decreases as the bend angle increase for all pipe bend models. A remarkable effect on the collapse load was observed for bend angles between 30° and 120° beyond which a decline was noticed. Ovality had a significant effect on the collapse load with this effect decreasing as the bend angle increased. The combined effect of thinning and bend angle was minimal for the considered models and the maximum per cent variation in collapse load was 5.76% for small bend angles and bend radius pipe bends and less than 2% for other cases.
The effect of structural deformations and bend angle on collapse load of pipe bends exposed to IPCM has been not studied in the existing literature.
