Effective stress factors for piping branch junctions due to internal pressure and external moment loads

Abstract

Finite element data have been combined with experimental data to produce design curves and an associated equation, which will allow the calculation of the effective stress factors (ESF) for a wide range of piping branch junctions for both internal pressure and all six external moment load categories. The data suggest that modifications are required in design procedures for some geometries for internal pressure loading. For branch out-of-plane loading the present data agree reasonably well with ASME III design rules, but extend these to cover the full range of diameter ratios up to d/D = 1.0.