The Bending of Curved Pipes With Variable Wall Thickness

Abstract

A general solution is presented for the in-plane bending of short-radius curved pipes (pipe bends) which have variable wall thickness. Using the elastic thin-shell theory, the actual radius of curvature of the pipe’s longitudinal fibers and displacement of the neutral line of the cross section under bending are taken into account. The pipe’s wall thickness is assumed to vary smoothly along the contour of the pipe’s cross section, and is a function of an angular coordinate. The solution uses the minimization of the total energy, and is compared to our previous solution for curved pipes with constant wall thickness.