Importance & Impact of Stress Intensification Factor

(SIF): A Presentation

SIF : As per ASME Section III Code SIF is defined as the Fatigue Correlation Factors that
compare the fatigue life of Piping Components (Tees, branch connections) to that of girth butt welds
in straight pipe subjected to bending moments.
HISTORY:
MARKL FATIGUE CURVE FOR STRAIGHT PIPE (Fig. 1):

Fig. 1: Markl Fatigue Curve for Butt Welded Steel pipe

Markl stress intensification factor : iS = 245,000N-0.2
i =( CN-0.2)/S
Where i=Stress intensification factor
C=245,000 for carbon steel materials
N=Cycles to failure
S=Nominal stress amplitude
Markl SIF is based on deflection control, fully reversed, cyclic bending fatigue tests.
APPLICATION:

 Section III, for class 2 & 3 piping and B31.1

Calculated stress S = iM / Z
where M = (MX2 + MY2 + MZ2)1/2
 Z=Section Modulus
i= Stress intensification factor
This approach is conservative.

 3

Thermal expansion stress SE = (Sb2 + 4St2)1/2

where
Sb=resultant bending stress
St=torsional stress = Mt/2Z
The resultant bending stress is calculated by
Sb= [((iiMi)2 + (ioMo)2) ½]/Z
where
ii = in-plane bending stress intensification factor (Refer Fig. 3)
io= out-of-plane stress intensification factor (Refer Fig. 3)
Mi = in-plane bending moment (Refer Fig. 2)
Mo = out-of-plane bending moment (Refer Fig. 2)

Fig. 2: Moments in Elbow and Branch Connections

 Fig. 3: Table D300 of ASME B 31.3
Eg: For 12” Std schedule long radius elbow.
a)Elbow without flange
R1 = 1.5(12) = 18”
T = 0.375” (Std) Assume same thk for pipe & elbow
r2 = ( OD-T)/2 = 6.1875”
h = (TR1 )/ (r2)2 = 0.176 (From table D-300 of B31.3)
ii = 0.9 / h2/3 = 2.86
io = 0.75/ h2/3 = 2.4
b)If one end is flanged the correction factor C1 = h1/6 = 0.7486
ii = C1 ( 0.9 ) / h2/3 = 0.7486 x 2.86 = 2.14
io = C1 ( 0.75)/ h2/3 = 0.7486 x 2.4 = 1.797
PRESSURE VS SIF:
Effect of Pressure on SIF:

Fig. 4: Calculation showing effect of pressure on SIF

FEM TECHNIQUES:
The various methods for calculating SIF Are

 Analytical Methods defined by Piping Codes

 FEM techniques

The user can see that the basic SIF procedure is:
  Build the model.
 Apply a moment through the nominal attached pipe.
 Read the highest stress from the result plot.
 Divide by M/Z to get the SIF.

The Fem Softwares widely used for calculating Sif are

 FE-pipe
 Ansys

SIF Calculations
The basic definition of a stress intensification factor (SIF) is:
SIF = (Actual Peak Stress in Part)/( Nominal Stress in Part)
The nominal stress in the part for a piping component subject to bending loads is M/Z where “M” is
the moment that the pipe exerts on the component, and Z is the section modulus of the matching
pipe welded to the part being analyzed.
Example Case:
For example, when SIFs are needed for a large D/T “Wye” Fitting, there are usually four SIFs
involved.

 one for the inplane moment about the wye,

 one for the outplane moment
 For both the main header and branch sections.

An example, demonstrating this calculation for a 32×0.375 wye fitting is shown in the example.
Markl’s definition of the SIF is the ratio of the actual stress in the part due to a moment “M”, divided
by the nominal stress in a girth (circumferential) butt weld due to a similar moment “M”.
B31 sif = Actual Stress in Part (due to M)/ Stress in Girth Butt Weld (due to M)

Fig. 5: FEM model for Y type fitting.

Two loadcases for the model are setup automatically by FE/Pipe.
They are
  Operating, and
 Occasional

Various displacements and stresses from each load case are shown in Fig 6 and Fig 7.

Fig. 6: Displaced shape in FEM analysis

Fig. 7: Peak Stress results in FEM analysis