Estimation of Creep Buckling Deformation Under External Pressure at Elevated Temperature

Abstract

The effect of the initial ovality, wall thickness, and pressure level on the collapse time of a heat transfer tube subjected to both constant and cycled external pressure at elevated temperature was examined experimentally and analytically. The creep deformation of the tube obtained by FEM code and the simplified method was a good approximation. The simplified method proposed by Nishiguchi et al. is an effectual method in the estimation of the creep buckling deformation and the collapse time of the tube under external pressure at elevated temperature as compared with the experimental results and the FEM. Though many cracks initiated by creep collapse were observed on the outer surface of a few test tubes, the cracks did not pass through the tube thickness, and leak tightness was maintained despite a collapse for all tubes tested.