Life prediction of the tapered pipe with high temperature and high pressure by finite element methods

Tapered pipe used in the main steam pipelines, which operated at high temperature and high pressure, including concentric tapered pipe and eccentric tapered pipe, they are sources of weakness in the piping system serviced in the power stations and the chemical plants, and creep is the significant reason that caused their failure. Creep damage analyses are carried out for these two kinds of tapered pipes by introducing user subroutine based on the modified Karchanov-Rabotnov constitutive equations into finite element program ABAQUS, then the effects of bending moments and internal pressure to the serviced life of the components are investigated by comparing four group of calculated results under different loads, the results indicated that eccentric tapered pipe is more inclinable to broken than concentric tapered pipe under the same conditions, so it is not recommended to use the eccentric tapered pipe in the piping system. The bending moments will accelerate the components' failure, so it is necessary to take some advantages to reduce the bending moments near the tapered pipe, on the other hand, the life of the tapered pipe will decrease quickly with the internal pressure increasing, so the control of the operated pressure is important to ensure the serviced life of the pipelines.