Lateral loading of internally pressurized steel pipes

Abstract

The paper examines the denting response of tubular members and pipes subjected to lateral (transverse) quasi-static loading, in the presence of internal pressure. Tubes are modeled with nonlinear shell finite elements, and the numerical results are in good agreement with available experimental data. Using the numerical tools, a parametric study is conducted to examine the effects of pressure level, as well as those of denting device size and pipe end conditions. It is mainly concluded that for a given denting displacement, the presence of internal pressure increases significantly the corresponding denting force. A simplified two-dimensional heuristic model is also adopted, which yields closed-form expressions for the denting force. The model equations are in fairly good agreement with the test results and illustrate pipe denting response in an elegant manner. Copyright © 2005 by ASME.