(2010-12) Inyang, Etienying Edem; Mendonidis, P.; Oba, P.; Masu, L. M.
This research work focused on welded titanium alloy (grade 5) pipes, to ascertain if the
weld joints can withstand the immediate and accumulated effects of fluid flow in
(industrial) applications.
Modeling of welded pipes was done using Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 5.0. The cylindrical
pipe models were of 206,375mm inner and 219,075mm outer diameter respectively;
made of Ti6Al4V material. Three models were made: one of unwelded pipes, another
with a seam weldment and the third with a circumferential weld. The welds were
modeled as autogenous gas tungsten arc welding and the models included calculated heat affected zones. The pipes were modeled with a flowing fluid under pressure exerted
evenly on all sides of the pipe walls (circumference). The boundary conditions were such
that the pipe ends were supported as if the pipe were continuous.
Stress and strain analysis on the pipe models were performed by the Finite Element
Method using Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 5.0. The results of the Finite Element Analysis
(FEA) indicated that stress vary very negligibly along the pipe. A comparison of the FEA
modeling results to the analytically determined value of the stress showed very low or
zero percentage deviation.