LimitLoad 1

1 Copyright 2011 by ASME
Proceedings of the 2011 ASME Pressure Vessel & Piping Conference

PVP2011
July 17-21, 2011, Baltimore, Maryland USA
PVP2011-57056

THE LIMIT LOAD AND SAFETY ASSESSMENT OF PRESSURE PIPE WITH
AN EXTERNAL PIT DEFECT AT HIGH TEMPERATURE

Bo Wang, Changyu Zhou, Xiaohua He, Jilin Xue
School of Mechanical and Power Engineering,
Nanjing University of Technology
Nanjing, Jiangsu, 210009, China

ABSTRACT
Local pit is the common volume defect in high temperature
pressure pipe which is widely used in the fields of electric plant,
nuclear power station, petrochemical plant and so on. In this
paper finite element analysis code ABAQUS was used to
simulate limit load of high temperature pressure pipe with an
external pit defect which is in service for 10
5
hours. Four-point
bending loading model was applied to calculate the limit load of
the pipe. There are three dimensionless factors: relative depth,
relative gradient and relative length which characterized the
shape of an external pit defect. Orthogonal test of three factors
at four different levels was carried out to analyze the sequence
of the influence of these three parameters. In present paper
when the maximum principal strain reaches 2%, the
corresponding load is selected as the limit load. According to
this strain criterion and isochronous stress strain data of P91
steel, limit load of high temperature pressure pipe with an
external pit was determined by using ABAQUS. Firstly,
isochronous stress strain data was generated and was inputted
into ABAQUS as equivalent elastic-plastic constitutive relation.
Then, sustained load versus cumulative strain curves at high
temperature during service was obtained after the simulation. At
last, limit loads of high temperature pipe during service time
was determined based on 2% total strain criterion. In order to
obtain the safety assessment curve of high temperature pipe,
five types of limit loads for pressure pipe with an external pit
were needed: ultimate limit bending moment, limit internal
pressure, limit bending moments at the pressure of 0.25P
L
,0.5P
L

and 0.75P
L
individually. 16 sets of data formed 16 groups of
curves which expressed the relationship between the ratio of
limit pressure and the ratio of limit bending moment for
defective pipe and non-defective pipe. Based on the calculation
results of limit load for pipe with 16 kinds of defects, a set of
limit load formulae were established through multiple non-
linear regression of relative depth, relative gradient and relative

length. So the equations of limit load and safety assessment for
pressure pipe with an external pit under combined loading of
pressure and bending moment were obtained. The results could
provide a reference for safety assessment of high temperature
creep pressure pipe with local pit defect.

INTRODUCTION
Due to the corrosion of transport medium and the erosion
of soil, local pits are generated on the internal and external wall
of the pipe. So the local pit is one of the common defects of the
pipes in the fields of electric power plant, petrochemical plant,
nuclear power station etc. The depth of local pit is varied, and
sometimes it reaches 50% of wall thickness or more. Firstly the
local pit reduced loading area of the pressure pipes; secondly it
generated stress concentration at the location of pit defect and
weakened anti-fatigue load capacity of pipe. Plastic failure is a
common form of pressure pipes made by materials with good
toughness. So if the safety of pipes need to be assessed, the
limit load must be obtained. Pipes considered in this paper were
subjected to combined loading of internal pressure and bending
moment. The service time was 10
5
hours, and elastic-plastic
finite element method was used to analysis the limit load of high
temperature pressure pipe. Four-point bending loading model
was applied to calculate the limit load of the pipe. The shape of
a pit defect was characterized by three dimensionless factors:
relative depth, relative gradient and relative length. Orthogonal
test of three factors at four different levels was carried out to
analyze the sequence of the influence of the three parameters.
The safety assessment curve was obtained from the envelope
curves of 16 sets of limit load data.
At present, the limit load and safety assessment of defective
pipes at normal temperature has been widely researched either
at home or abroad, and the research for the defective pipes at
high temperature is mainly for plane defects just as crack. But
Proceedings of the ASME 2011 Pressure Vessels & Piping Division Conference
PVP2011
July 17-21, 2011, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
PVP2011-57056
Downloaded 03 Oct 2012 to 203.199.33.2. Redistribution subject to ASME license or copyright; see http://www.asme.org/terms/Terms_Use.cfm
the analysis of defective pipes with local pits at high
temperature is involved little. Jilin Xue has calculated the limit
load and analyzed the method of safety assessment of high-
temperature pressure pipes with local wall-thinning. Xiaohua
He and Jianwen Sheng have calculated the creep stress of
pressure pipes with local pit at high temperature. In fact, local
pit is one of the most common defects of pressure pipes which
usually works in the high-temperature environment, therefore, it
is a concerned problem to ensure the pipes running safely and
reliably for long time. According to the strength theory, fracture
mechanics and finite element method, safety assessment of
pressure pipes at normal temperature has been basically solved.
Degradation of the material and structure is time-dependent at
high temperature, the normal method of structural intergrity can
not be applied in this instance. However, the structural intergrity
assessment of high-temperature components is a great important
problem of modern industry. So it is significant for the research
for the limit load and safety assessment of pressure pipes with
pit defects at high temperature.

EXPERIMENTAL CONDITIONS AND MODEL
PARAMETERS
In this paper, the object was high temperature pressure
pipes with a local pit defect. Service time of these models was
10
5
hours, service temperature was 625, and material was
P91 steel. Creep performance parameters and constitutive
relation for material was from the document of P91 steam
pipes[1]. The dimensions of pipes were 323.928.6 mm. In
order to reduce the effect of boundary conditions, the length of
pipe was taken as 3000 mm. The shape of external pit defect
was processed to three dimensionless factors: relative depth
( T C/ ), relative gradient ( A B/ ) and relative length
( T R A
i
). The dimension A,B,C were defined as the half
axial, half circumferential and radial depth of the pit. T was wall
thickness of the pipe. The construction schemes for analysis
model were shown in Fig. 1.
R
o
R
i
T
2B
2S
C
2A
Fig. 1 Geometry of pipe with an external pit

MATERIAL CONSTITUTIVE MODEL AND STRAIN
CRITERION FOR DETERMINING THE LIMIT LOAD
P91 steel is a promising material applied at high
temperature environment, and it has been widely used for
components operated at about 600 in power, petroleum
chemical and nuclear industries[2]. For a creep pressure pipe,
the total strain at any stress level is the sum of elastic, plastic
strain and creep strain cumulated in the creep time. In order to
consider all deformation, isochronous stress strain curve(shown
in Fig. 2) is an ideal choice. The isochronous stress strain curve
was generated based on existing elastic-plastic constitutive
equation and creep equation. At a point of isochronous stress
strain curve, it means that the steady stress has applied for a
specific time, and the strain is the cumulative strain resulting
from the stress during service, which contains elastic strain,
plastic strain and creep strain.
0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25
0
50
100
150
200
250

t=10h
t=100h
t=5000h
t=100000h
s
t
r
e
s
s
/
s
t
r
e
s
s
/
s
t
r
e
s
s
/
s
t
r
e
s
s
/
M
p
a
M
p
a
M
p
a
M
p
a
strain strain strain strain

Fig. 2 Isochronal stressstrain curves

For component made of ideal elastic plastic material, the
structure would enter into plastic state from the original elastic
state as load increasing. In this situation, the plastic deformation
will increase continuously even if the load doesnt increase any
more, this condition is called limit state. The load at this state is
called limit load. As the evalution criterion of plastic flow is
different, therefore, the method for determining the limit load is
different[3]. In ASME Boiler & Pressure Vessel Code Section
Division 1 Subsection NH-2007, limits for accumulated
inelastic strain at three conditions are given: (1) strain averaged
through the thickness, 1%; (2) strain at the surface, due to an
equivalent linear distribution of strain through the thickness,
2%; (3) local strains at any points, 5%[4]. In this paper, the
limit load for creep pipe is determined as follows, when the
maximum principal strain at defective position reaches 2%, the
corresponding load is selected as the limit load.

CALCULATION SCHEME
It is well known that there are many factors which affect the
limit load of pipe with a local pit defect. The main factors are
dimensions of pipe and pit, R
o
/R
i
, T, A, B, C etc. In order to
analysis the effect of the pit parameters on limit load,
orthogonal experiment design method was used, the calculation
scheme was planned by the orthogonal table. The half axial
length (A), half circumferential length (B) and depth (C) of pit
were dimensionless treated, and three parameters were defined
as three factors for the orthogonal experiment, four levels were
selected for each factor in Table 1. The table of orthogonal
experiment design was shown in Table 2.

Table 1 Factors and levels of the orthogonal
experiment design
Factors
Levels Relative depth
C/T
Relative Gradient
C/B
Relative length
i
A/ R T

1 0.2 0.5 0.5
2 0.33 0.625 0.8
3 0.5 0.769 1.2
4 0.6 1.0 1.5

Table 2 Calculation scheme of the orthogonal
experiment design
Exp. No. Levels of C/T Levels of C/B
Levels of
i
A/ R T

1 1 1 1
2 1 2 2
3 1 3 3
4 1 4 4
5 2 1 2
6 2 2 1
7 2 3 4
8 2 4 3
9 3 1 3
10 3 2 4
11 3 3 1
12 3 4 2
13 4 1 4
14 4 2 3
15 4 3 2
16 4 4 1

FINITE ELEMENT SIMULATION
By using finite element analysis code ABAQUS, the limit
load of P91 pressure pipe with a local pit was obtained.
Because the structure, constraints and loading conditions were
symmetrical, the pipe was split into four copies through the
longitudinal plane and transverse plane at the center of pit. In
order to reduce the computation time, 1/4 model was selected as
the simulation model.
Limit load calculation for high temperature pipe with
an external pit under internal pressure
As is shown in Fig. 3, the load of this model was internal
pressure. Symmetric restriction was adopted in the longitudinal
plane and transverse plane. At the end of the pipe, the axial
equivalent stress P
e
was applied and the displacement of vertical
direction was restricted.
The load should be increased gradually according to the
increment step. Because the simulation extent of accuracy for
loading stage directly affects the limit load, the increment step
should be set small enough.
Through the load simulation calculation, the limit pressure
of high temperature pipes with different pit defects based on the
above orthogonal experiment design can be obtained.
A
C
T
B
P
P
Pe
1500

Fig. 3 Calculation model of a pipe with defect
subjected to internal pressure

an external pit under bending moment
Four point bending loading was used in the model which is
shown in Fig. 4. Concentrated force 1/2F was applied to one
point M, but this would cause severe stress concentration and
make the numerical calculation difficult to converge. So the
circumference which point M located was coupled on the axis
point N, then the load was applied on the coupling point N.
0.5F
TC A
1500
1000
B
M
N
subjected to bending moment

an external pit under combined loading
The calculation model for the combination of bending
moment and internal pressure is similar to that of the single
load. The loading process was as follows: Firstly, 0.25, 0.50
and 0.75 times of the limit internal pressure(P
L
) was applied
respectively on the pipe, then, the bending moment is applied
gradually based on the increment step. When the maximum
principal strain reaches 2%, the bending moment obtained was
the limit bending moment under the combination of bending
moment and internal pressure. The internal pressure 0.25P
L
,
0.50P
L
and 0.75P
L
was the corresponding limit internal
pressure. (Here P
L
was the limit internal pressure under pressure
load only). The calculation model was shown in Fig. 5.
P
P
Pe
1500
1000
0.5F
B
TC
A
subjected to internal pressure and bending moment

Mesh generation on the finite element analysis model
Reduced integrated quadratic element C3D20R was used in
the finite element analysis. In order to made the results
continuous, subdivide the grid in the area nearby the defect, the
meshing of the model was shown in the following Fig. 6.

Fig. 6 Finite element mesh for pipe with an
external pit

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Range analysis of calculation results
Under the consideration of 16 kinds of defects, the limit
internal pressure, limit bending moment, combination of loads
of high temperature pipes for creep time 10
5
h and according to
the range analysis of those data, the influence order to limit
internal pressure and limit bending moment affected by these
three parameters(relative depth, relative gradient and relative
length) was obtained as follows:

Table 3 Range analysis about influence of defect
characteristic on limit pressure
Statistics
Relative
depth
C/T
Relative
Gradient
C/B
Relative
length
i
A/ R T

K
1
38.71 33.16 37.39
K
2
34.69 32.45 33.30
K
3
29.17 32.72 29.87
K
4
26.68 30.92 28.69
k
1
(=1/4K
1
) 9.68 8.29 9.35
k
2
(=1/4K
2
) 8.67 8.11 8.32
k
3
(=1/4K
3
) 7.29 8.18 7.47
k
4
(=1/4K
4
) 6.67 7.73 7.17
range 3.01 0.56 2.18

(1) The influence sequence of defect characteristic on limit
internal pressure is:
relative depth ( T C/ ) > relative length ( T R A
i
/ ) >
relative gradient( B C/ )

Table 4 Range analysis about influence of defect
characteristic on limit moment
Statistics
Relative
depth
C/T
Relative
Gradient
C/B
Relative
length
i
A/ R T

K
1
604.15 538.64 516.00
K
2
571.96 548.12 539.05
K
3
527.93 552.18 570.84
K
4
502.76 567.86 580.91
k
1
(=1/4K
1
) 151.04 134.66 129.00
k
2
(=1/4K
2
) 142.99 137.03 134.76
k
3
(=1/4K
3
) 131.98 138.05 142.71
k
4
(=1/4K
4
) 125.69 141.97 145.23
range 25.35 7.31 16.23

(2) The influence sequence of defect characteristic on limit
bending moment is:
relative depth ( T C/ ) > relative length ( T R A
i
/ ) >
relative gradient( B C/ )

The results indicated that the three parameters had the
same influence order to the limit internal pressure and limit
bending moment where relative depth showed the most
significant effect on the limit load, relative length came second
and relative gradient had little effect on the results.

Safety assessment for high temperature creep pipe
with an external pit
16 sets of limit load data made up the limit load curves of
defective pressure pipes at high temperature. The horizontal
coordinate of each point in the coordinate system indicates the
limit internal pressure ratio of defective pipe and non-defective
pipe, meanwhile, the longitudinal coordinate of each point
indicates the limit bending moment ratio. The low envelope
curve was set as elliptic curve, curve equation was:
1
36 . 0 72 . 0
2
0
2
0
=
L L
P
P
M
M
(1)
0 L
P limit internal pressure of no-defective pipe
0 L
M limit bending moment of no-defective pipe
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9
0.0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1.0
1.1
M
/
M
L
0
P/PL0
Fig. 6 Limit load diagram of pressure pipe with local
pit at high temperature

In addition, according to ASME Boiler & Pressure Vessel
Code Section Division 2 Subsection [5], if the limit load
obtained by finite element simulation to predict the allowable
loads of components was used, safety factor must be no less
than 1.5. Therefore, the above equation was processed as
follow:
1
24 . 0 48 . 0
2
0
2
0
=
L L
P
P
M
M
(2)
When the pipe with an external pit at high temperature is
assessed, the one thing needed to do is to verify whether the
coordinate (
0 L
P
P
,
0 L
M
M
) is inside the area
1
24 . 0 48 . 0
2
0
2
0

L L
P
P
M
M
or not.
Regression formulae of limit loads
Based on the calculation results, the formulae about limit
load parameters
0 L
L
P
P
and
0 L
L
M
M
of different defect
dimension was well fit by non-linear regression. These two
parameters were nondimensional and were similar to the stress
concentration factor(SCF). In the literature[8],[9],[10], power
exponent functions were fully utilized in the regression of
parametre SCF. In this paper, this approach also can be applied
to the regression. One empirical model of them gives best fit to
the target parameter. The equation model was listed as follows:

Z Y X b a Factor + =
(3)
Here X, Y, Z represented the shape parameters of the local pit
defect. So the limit pressure and limit bending moment formulas
are listed below:
(1) Limit internal pressure
59 . 0 26 . 0 43 . 0
0
669 . 0 879 . 0

=
T
C
B
C
RT
A
P
P
L
L
(4)
(2) Limit bending moment
695 . 0 40 . 0 44 . 0
0
36 . 0 075 . 1

=

T
C
B
C
RT
A
M
M
L
L
(5)

CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, the limit load of high temperature pipes with
an external pit was calculated by finite element simulation, and
the failure assessment diagram method was applied to conduct
the defect assessment of these pipes. The following conclusions
were obtained:
(1) Isochronous stress-strain curves of the pipe material at
high temperature for service time is the basis to determine the
limit load at high temperature.
(2) The parameter of relative depth (C/T) is the primary
affecting factor to the limit internal pressure and limit bending
moment of high temperature pipe with an external pit. Relative
length (
T R A
i
/
) comes second and relative gradient (C/B) has
little effect on the results.
(3) Limit load diagram and the envelope curve of high
temperature defective pressure pipe were obtained which could
assess the safety of high temperature pressure pipe with an
external pit for service time 10
5
h.
(4) According to the calculation results, the relationship of
limit load and defect dimension was obtained by nonlinear
regression. It would provide a reference to predict limit load
and failure assessment of high temperature pressure pipe with
an external pit.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support
by Jiangsu Natural Science Funds BK2008373 and
Graduate Student Scientific Innovation Project of Jiangsu
Province (CX10B_164Z), China.

REFERENCES
[1] Theofel, H. Investigations on matching P91 welds under
creep loading[R]. Final report, AIF project No.9300, 1997.
[2] J.L. Xue, C.Y. Zhou, J. Peng: Creep stress analyses
affected by defect geomentries on P91 pipe with local wall
thinning under high temperature, The 18th international
conference on nuclear engineering, Xian, China (2010).
[3] R.W. Nichols, Pressure vessel codes and standards:
developments in pressure vessel technology-5[M].
Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1987
[4] ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code, Section ,
Subsection NH [S], New York: ASME, 2007.
[5] ASME Boiler & Pressure Vessel Code Section Division
2 Subsection [S], New York: ASME 2007
[6] GB/T 19624-2004 Safety assessment for in-service
pressure vessels containing defects[S]. Chinese standard
press, 2004.
[7] ABAQUS Users manual. Hibbitt, Karlson and Sorensen,
Inc; 2001.
[8] F.P. Brennan, P. peleties, A.K. Hellier, Predicting weld toe
stress concentration factors for T and skewed T-joint plate
connections[J]. International Journal of Fatigue 22 (2000)
573-584.
[9] E.A. de Carvalho, Stress concentration factors for an
internally pressurized circular vessel containing a radial U-
notch[J], International Journal of Pressure Vessels and
piping 82(2005) 517-521.
[10] Bianca de C, Pinheiro, Ilson P. Pasqualino, Fatigue
analysis of damaged steel pipelines under cyclic internal
pressure[J], International Journal of Fatigue 31 (2009)
962-973.

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Proceedings of the 2011 ASME Pressure Vessel & Piping Conference

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