LOGO WILL BE HERE

DESIGN OF STIFFENERS FOR INDUSTRIAL PIPING

UNDER EXTERNAL PRESSURE USING FEM
Nedeljko Vukojević1, Josip Kačmarčik2, Alma Žiga3,
Nedeljko Babić4, Nemanja Tanasijević5

Summary: Stiffening rings are often used as reinforcement in various pressure

equipment and their design is covered in different codes. Their implementation can
provide more economical solution which satisfies design criteria without further increase
of shell thickness. This is especially used in design of pressure vessel and piping under
external pressure where failure is mostly caused by loss of stability. In this paper design
check of pipe stiffeners is made using EN 13480-3 standard and commercial FEM
software. Besides analysis of stiffening rings covered in the standard, use of spiral
stiffeners is investigated. The reinforcement effect of the two different stiffener’s types
are compared.
Key words: Piping, external pressure, stiffener, FEM, EN 13480-3

1. INTRODUCTION
External pressure loading is created in three ways: by a vacuum inside a pipe,
by a pressure outside a pipe greater than the atmospheric or an inside pressure in pipe,
or a combination of the two first two. This condition could be found in various industrial
piping systems. When dimensioning a pipe under external pressure beside control of
stresses, a stability check is necessary. To provide stability against collapse, instead of
increasing the shell thickness, a more economical solution is to reinforce a shell. Design
rules for different type of stiffener rings are well covered in various codes and standards.
However, spiral stiffeners are not covered and although there are numerous papers
dealing with buckling of cylindrical shell with spiral stiffeners, authors were not able to
comparison of reinforcement effect between ring and spiral stiffeners.
Here, comparison of the two types of stiffeners is made using FEM analysis. This
is done on case of a pipe under external pressure created by vacuum. Dimensions and
load condition of the pipe are based on an industrial dust collection system, which is not
presented here due to its complexity.

1 Dr.sci. Nedeljko Vukojević, Zenica, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering Zenica, ([email protected])

2 Dr.sci. Josip Kačmarčik, Zenica, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering Zenica, ([email protected])
3 Dr.sci. Alma Žiga, Visoko, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering Zenica, ([email protected])
4 Dipl.ing. Nedeljko Babić, Termoelektro d.o.o. Brčko, ([email protected])
5 Dipl.ing. Nemanja Tanasijević (IWE), Termoelektro d.o.o. Brčko, ([email protected])
Vukojević N., Kačmarčik J., Žiga A.

2. PROBLEM DESCRIPTION
The dimensions of investigated pipe without stiffeners are given in figure 1. The
pipe is subjected to the external pressure of p 0.09 MPa, has the internal radius
r 1602 mm and the shell thickness t 10 mm. Two flanges are designed at the pipe
ends for connection with other parts of piping system.

Fig. 1 Dimensions of the pipe

Theoretical principal stresses in the pipe are circumertial and longitudal stress
that can be calcualted with ∙ ⁄ 14.418 MPa and ∙ ⁄ 2 7.209 MPa.
Equialent von Misses stress is then ∙ 12.49 MPa [1].
Two type of stiffener design are considered, ring (four rings in an array with an
equal spacing) and spiral (three 360° spirals with an equal spacing between them), figure
2. In order to comparison between them is possible, they are designed with similar cross
sections, identical if radial contact between the shell and the spiral stiffener is neglected,
figure 2. All pipe features are made from the same material, steel S275J0.

Fig. 2 Pipe with ring and spiral stiffeners and their cross-section

2
Design of stiffeners for industrial piping under external pressure using FEM

Beside the cross section, the two stiffeners have a very close length, calculated
on the outside face of the pipe. The ring stiffener length is approximately
4 ∙ 3.224 40.5 m and for the spiral length is 3 ∙ 3.224 9 40.6 m.
3
Stiffener volume from the 3D models are 0.101 m for the ring and 0.095 m3 for
the spiral stiffener.

3. DESIGN CHECK ACCORDING TO EN 13480-3

There are three design requirements for pipes with stiffeners under external
pressure in EN 13480-3: interstiffener collapse, overall collapse of stiffened pipes and
stiffener stability [2]. Only ring stiffeners are considered. Input values for standard
calculations are pipe and stiffener dimensions and material properties. Because of the
large extent of standard rules and procedure, here it is presented in very condensed
form with the main results obtained for the considered pipe and without formulas for all
factors (symbols) defined in the standard.
The interstiffener collapse is checked with the condition ∙ , where is
calculated lower bound collapse pressure, p is specified external design pressure and
is factor of safety where the required value is k = 1.5. The pr is interpolated from table
with values provided in the standard, based on the calculated values of pm and py,
theoretical elastic instability pressure for collapse of perfect cylindrical shell and
theoretical elastic instability pressure for collapse of perfect cylindrical shell, respectively.
For the pipe’s design considered here, the unstiffened pipe does not satisfy required
factor of safety and k 3.05 is calculated for the pipe with the ring stiffeners.
The conditions pn k ∙ ks ∙ p and 0 σs Ss must be conformed in order to avoid
overall collapse of stiffened pipes. Here, pn is theoretical elastic instability pressure of a
stiffened cylinder, ks is addition factor of safety depending on the fabrication of stiffener
and Ss is elastic stress limit for the stiffener material (1/1.25 of a 0.02% proof strength
value). The two conditions are satisfy with k = 5.25 and Ss/ σs 2.39 values, for the pipe
with ring stiffener.
The condition for stiffener stability is given with 4 ∙ ∙ / , where is
obtained (interpolated) from table with values in standard using pipe and stiffener
dimensions and material properties, and is pressure causing circumferential yield of
stiffener. This condition is satisfied with great ratio between left and right side of
inequality that could be interpreted as a factor of safety with value of 144.

4. FEM ANALYSIS
The unstiffened and pipe with the two different type of stiffeners (figure 2) are
analysed using static and buckling module in commercial FEM software Solidworks
Simulation [3]. Geometry of the pipe is modelled with the combination of quadratic shell
and quadratic solid elements, triangular and tetrahedral, figure 3 and figure 4. The mesh
size of 100 mm and 10 mm, for shell and solid elements is used, respectively. The
properties of the pipe material (S275J0) are obtained and applied from the software
material database (E = 210 GPa, μ = 0.28). One-half model of the unstiffened and the
pipe with ring stiffener are built, with symmetry conditions applied on the half-symmetry
planes. Although there are more geometrical symmetry planes, because of buckling
asymmetry there couldn’t be used. In all models a fixed support is applied on the lateral

3
Vukojević N., Kačmarčik J., Žiga A.

face of the end flange. The design pressure (0.09 MPa) is applied to the shell elements.
The boundary condition applied in the FEM software are shown in figure 5.

a) b) c)

Fig 3 Mesh for the pipe model

a) without stiffener b) with ring stiffeners c) with spiral stiffeners
a) b)

Fig 4 Mesh detail around a) a ring stiffener b) a spiral stiffener

a) b)

Fig 5 Boundary condition on the model with a) ring stiffeners b) spiral stiffeners

4
Design of stiffeners for industrial piping under external pressure using FEM

Results of the static analysis show a maximal stress in the region of bond
between fixed flange and pipe shell (and spiral stiffener for that case) for stiffened pipes.
The focus of the analysis here was stiffeners design so this stresses were neglected. In
table 1 the approximate values of the maximum Von Misses stress in the rest of the
pipe’s model are given. The shell stresses are close to the theoretical values, confirming
the analysis validity. Figure 6 shows stress distribution around ring and spiral stiffener.
The first buckling mode for all models are presented in figure 7, where the corresponding
factor of safety are given in table 1.

a) b)

Fig 6 FEM stress results detail for the pipe model with
a) ring stiffener b) spiral stiffener
a) b) c)

Fig 7 Buckling modes for the pipe model

a) without stiffener b) with ring stiffener c) with spiral stiffener

Table 1 FEM analysis results

FEM model
FEM result pipe with ring pipe with spiral
pipe
stiffener stiffener
max. σVM / MPa * 13,8 13,8 14,5
buckling factor of safety 1,7 6,7 4,3
* neglecting the localised extreme values on pipe and flange connections

5
Vukojević N., Kačmarčik J., Žiga A.

5. RESULTS COMPARISON AND CONCLUSION

The FEM results show no significant differences between stress results for the
pipe design with ring stiffener and spiral stiffener. However, the ring type provides
significantly greater buckling factor of safety than the spiral one. Taking into a count
obviously a more complex manufacture of spiral stiffener, this paper shows great
advantage of ring stiffener and can recommend its application.
The comparison of factor of safety for buckling from FEM analysis and for
interstiffener collapse according to ISO 13480-3 shows 2.2 times greater value obtained
in Solidworks software, suggesting that one should be cautious when using FEM
software in design. However, this issue is not addressed in more detail here.

REFERENCES
[1] Določek, V. at al (2004). Elastostatika, drugi dio. Tehnički fakultet Bihać
[2] EN 13480-3:2012. Metallic industrial piping – Part 3: Design and calculation,
European Standard
[3] SolidWorks 2014, Dassault Systèmes (www.solidworks.com)