Photoelastic investigation of the stresses in mitred bent cylinders under bending, (1)

Recently large bore pipes have been frequently used, and the techniques of jointing such pipes are important technical problem. As for the actual design of pipe joints, the stress condition has not been sufficiently clarified. When two same diameter pipes are jointed making a certain angle, mitred bent pipes are often used from economical and technical viewpoints as the pipes become large bore. In a mitred bent pipe, there is a sharp edge in its pipe joint, at which the measurement of stress and strain is difficult. The stress distribution near the joint when a mitred bent pipe is subjected to the bending moment in the plane containing the axes of both pipes was analyzed by the freezing three-dimensional photo-elastic method, and not only the bending stress in the joint but also the hoop stress were determined by the wedge method. This stress concentration phenomenon is due to the whole structural factor of the intersection of two pipes and the local stress peak factor caused at the wedge-shaped edge formed in the intersection. The local form of the intersection plays important role in the stress concentration. The manufactured models, the method of loading, slices and the wedge method, and the stress distribution are reported. (Kako, I.)