The effect of load-controlled bending load on the failure pressure of wall-thinned pipe elbows

In this research, burst tests were conducted on real-scale elbow specimens, each with an artificial local wall-thinning defect, under combined internal pressure and constant in-plane bending load, as well as under simple internal pressure, to evaluate the effect of load-controlled bending load on the failure pressure of locally wall-thinned pipe elbows. Ninety-degree, 65A Schedule 80 elbows, with wall-thinning defects in the intrados and extrados, were used as specimens. The bending loads were in-plane opening- and closing-mode bending, applied in load-control mode. The results clearly indicated that a load-controlled in-plane bending load reduced the failure pressure of wall-thinned pipe elbows, in contrast to observations previously made under displacement-controlled bending conditions. The effect of the bending load was more significant for opening-mode than for closing-mode bending, regardless of the wall-thinning location in the elbow. Also, the effect was greater when the wall-thinning defect was located in the intrados region of the elbow, rather than the extrados region. Existing models that have been proposed to evaluate the failure of wall-thinned elbows under simple internal pressure conservatively predicted the failure pressure of elbows subjected to a combined internal pressure and load-controlled bending load.