The Ratcheting Behaviour of Stainless Steel Pressurized Piping Elbows Subjected to Dynamic Out-of-Plane Moments

In this paper the ratcheting behavior of four pairs of stainless steel elbows is studied under conditions of steady internal pressure and dynamic conditions that induced out-of-plane external moments at frequencies typical of seismic excitations. The finite element analysis with the nonlinear kinematic hardening model has been used to evaluate ratcheting behavior of the piping elbows under mentioned loading condition. Material parameters have been obtained from several stabilized cycles of specimens that are subjected to symmetric strain cycles. The direction of maximum strain is at about 45° between the hoop and axial directions. The results show that the direction of highest ratcheting is along the hoop direction rather than the direction of maximum principal strain. Also, the initial rate of ratcheting is large and then it decreases with the increasing cycles. Also, the FE method gives over estimated values compared with the experimental data.