Estimation of low cycle fatigue life of elbows considering bi-axial stress effect

Elbow pipes are commonly used in the piping systems of power plants and chemical plants. The stress states at elbow part are complex and quite different from those of the straight pipes. It is well known that the fatigue lives of metals under simple push-pull conditions were successfully predicted by the Manson's universal slope method. However, it have been pointed out by the several researchers that the low cycle fatigue lives of elbows under combined cyclic bending and inner pressure could not be predicted by the Manson's universal slope method. However, the reasons for this are not made clear. In this work, the low cycle fatigue tests and the finite element analysis of elbows under cyclic bending and inner pressures were carried out. It was found that the bi-axial stress ratio, which is a ratio of hoop stress and axial stress, at elbows are quite high. Considering the bi-axial stress ratio, the revised Manson's universal slope method was proposed in this paper. It was shown that the low cycle fatigue lives of elbows under combined cyclic bending and inner pressure were predicted conservatively by the proposed method. (author)