Acoustically Induced Structural Fatigue of Piping Systems

Abstract

Piping systems handling high-pressure and high-velocity steam and various process and hydrocarbon gases through a pressure-reducing device can produce severe acoustic vibration and metal fatigue in the system. It has been previously shown that the acoustic fatigue of the piping system is governed by the relationship between fluid pressure drop and downstream Mach number, and the dimensionless pipe diameter/wall thickness geometry parameter. In this paper, the devised relationship is extended to cover acoustic fatigue considerations of medium and smaller-diameter piping systems.