Determine the optimal span between pipe supports for thin walled piping systems

This paper studies the allowable span between pipe supports for thin walled piping systems. The maximum stresses in many thin walled piping systems are the local stress at the pipe supports. These stresses are caused by saddles or other structural discontinuities that cause pipe ovalization. ASME has suggested the value for support span, but the bending stress considered in its calculation is very low (15.9 Mpa). The finite element analysis is performed using a shell model with distributed gravity and design pressure loading. Parametric studies on global and local stress are performed to determine the effect of the pipe diameter to thickness ratio (D/t).Some correlations for calculating the maximum span using maximum bending stress are suggested for thin walled piping. Safety of the design is checked using maximum deflection and buckling. A sample problem is considered for evaluation and the results are compared with standards like ASME B31.1 and AWWA.In this paper, the distance between the support values are determined using linear methods. These methods are based on beam elements. So that the deflection, bending and local stresses are within the allowable range. FEA methods and its results were compared with the results of the presented methods

Keywords:

deflection , bending stress , local stress , pipe support span , thin walled pipe , FEA