Pipelines Operating at High Temperature must be flexible enough to prevent thermal expansion from causing Excessive Stresses either in Pipe or pipe components. These Loads due to expansion cause excessive undesirable forces and bending moments at joints, anchor, and guides etc. “Flexibility can be defined as a measure of the ability of a Piping system to absorb its own expansion or that of the connecting equipment while satisfying the Design conditions”. Nature of expansion of the pipes is mainly depended upon the temperature it is exposed and type of material of construction. Every material got a " Coefficient of Expansion" which is indicative of a particular material’s nature of expansion and can be defined as a ratio between free expansion in Linear direction to the original length. When the Pipe is heated, it would try to expand axially but as the Piping network does not allow a “Free expansion” and there will be many restraints which resist expans...
Tutorials on Basics of Piping Engineering and Pipe Stress Analysis