Effect of local wall thinning on limit loads for piping branch junctions. Part 2: In-plane bending

This paper presents plastic limit loads of piping branch junctions with local wall thinning under in-plane bending, based on systematic three-dimensional finite element (FE) limit analyses using elastic-perfectly plastic materials. As in Part 1, an ideal branch junction without weld or reinforcement around the intersection is considered with two locations of wall thinning; one in the run pipe (opposite to the intersection), and the other in the branch pipe (next to the intersection). Based on FE results, effects of thinning geometries on plastic limit moments are quantified and simple approximations of plastic limit loads for piping branch junctions with local wall thinning under in-plane bending are proposed.