Plastic collapse and LBB behavior of statically indeterminate piping system subjected to a static load

The plastic collapse and LBB behavior of statically indeterminate piping sy stem were investigated in this study, compared with those of the statically determinate piping system. Special attention was paid to evaluate the crac k opening displacement after a crack penetrated wall thickness. The main re sults obtained were as follows: 1. The reduction of ultimate strength caused by a crack was relatively smal l in the statically indeterminate piping system. The main reason is thought to be that a sufficient redistribution of the bending moment occurs in thi s system. 2. A method to evaluate the crack opening displacement after crack penetrat ion in a pipe with a non-penetrating crack was proposed. From this method, it was known that the crack opening displacement could be evaluated by usin g the incremental plastic rotation angle. 3. The acceptable defect size considering the deformation of a pipe was est imated by comparing the plastic moment at the defective part and the gross yielding moment at the non-defective part. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. A ll rights reserved.