What is Bellows Pressure Thrust?

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Aug 05 Posted by Chuck Becht in Piping

Pressure thrust is present in all pressurized piping systems. It is simply the gage pressure times the inside area of the pipe. It acts
at changes in direction, such as elbows, and at changes in pipe cross section, such as reducers. Pressure thrust is normally
carried as an axial load by the pipe. However, inclusion of a bellows expansion joint, which is not intended to carry such axial
loads, removes the normal means of resisting the pressure thrust. Therefore, other means, such as pipe anchors and hardware
on the bellows such as tie rods, is required to carry the pressure thrust load.
The pressure thrust is the gage pressure times the area within the mean diameter (Dm) of a metallic bellows expansion joint. It
can be helpful in system design to understand where the forces actually occur. Some pipe stress software use the simplifying
assumption in the analysis that the force acts at the bellows, but only part of the force actually acts at that location.
Take for example an elbow, with a straight run of pipe to an expansion joint. A pressure thrust force acts at the elbow, which is
2
P*pi*d /4 where d is the inside diameter of the pipe. The pressure times the area between the inside diameter of the bellows and
the inside diameter of the pipe acts at the end of the bellows. An additional area is on the sidewall of the bellows convolution. Half
of the pressure thrust acting on the end sidewall is balanced with that acting on the adjacent side of the convolution, across the
bellows crown. The other half of the pressure thrust pushes against the pipe, and is part of what is calculated as the bellows
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pressure thrust. So the total bellows pressure thrust is P*pi*Dm /4, of which
2
2
P*pi*(Dm d )/4 is acting at the end of the bellows, pushing on the pipe if the bellows in under internal pressure.
If there is an anchor between an elbow and an unrestrained (meaning the expansion joint does not include hardware to carry the
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pressure thrust) bellows expansion joint that is intended to carry the pressure thrust, the load would be P*pi*Dm /4. If there is an
unrestrained bellows expansion joint in pipe connected to a vessel nozzle, there is a pressure thrust load
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acting on the nozzle which is P*pi*(Dm d )/4 where d in this case is the inside diameter of the nozzle and a load acting on the
2
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vessel wall opposite the nozzle of P*pi*d /4. The entire pressure thrust load of P*pi*Dm /4 is acting on the vessel and must be
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resisted by the vessel foundation. Note the difference in pressure thrust force acting on the nozzle, which is P*pi*d /4 for a pipe
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2
without an expansion joint and P*pi*(Dm d )/4 for a pipe with an unrestrained expansion joint, and the direction of the force is
reversed.

Tags: Piping

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1/7/2014 4:12 PM

What is Bellows Pressure Thrust? - Becht Engineering Blog

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