A short article on “Expansion Loop” on

piping system
November 6, 2018 2 Comments

All piping engineers are well acquainted with expansion loops (Fig 1). These are mainly
required in piping system design to

 Reduce system stress and

 Limit thermal displacements

Fig 1 shows typical loops used in piping system.

Fig. 1: Typical Expansion loops

 Loops provide the necessary leg of piping in a perpendicular direction to absorb the
thermal expansion. They are safe when compared with expansion joints but take more
space.
 Load due to axial expansion causes bending stresses to be developed, increasing
upwards in the vertical pipes and becoming a maximum at the loop elbows.
 That bending moment stays at that maximum bending moment level for the entire
length of the top horizontal pipe until it gets to the next elbow and starts’ reducing
until it reaches the bottom pipe on the other side of the loop.
 As the loop gets higher, both axial resultant stress in the horizontal pipes and the
bending moments in the loop are reduced.

Expansion loops are categorized in different styles:

Symmetric loop vs Nonsymmetric loop (Fig. 2):

Ideally loops shall be located centered between anchors with equal legs on either side of
anchor. Symmetrical loops are advantageous to absorb the equal amount of expansion from
both directions.

When this isn’t practical make legs on either side of anchor as equal as possible.

Friction Forces are determined by the number of pipe supports a line crosser. By making
these legs equal, the forces at the anchor should remain nearly balanced.

Fig. 2: Symmetric and non-symmetric loops

2-D vs 3-D Loops (Fig. 3): Loops may be 2-D or 3-D types. Normally for steam lines, flare
lines, condensate lines etc 2-D loops are preferred. Otherwise 3-D loop can be provided.
Fig. 3: 2-D vs 3-D Loops.

Multiple Loops (Fig. 4):

More than one loop may be required when:

1. It is impossible to make branch connections flexible enough.

2. Spacing between branches and neighboring lines or steel is limited.
3. When loop becomes too large to support or fit into space available.
4. Anchor forces become too unbalanced and steel cannot be economically braced.
5. More than one loop may be required when, the forces required to bend the loop are
too great, and the anchors cannot be economically reinforced.

Fig. 4: Multiple Expansion loops in a piping system

Placing Expansion Loops/ Expansion Loop Placements:

1. Loop width should always be based on utilizing existing supports.

2. Thermal expansion must be allowed for when spacing adjacent loops.
3. Loop width does not have to be near 20 feet just because the loop nomographs happen
to use that number. Loop width has only secondary effect on results.
 4. Minimum loop height depends on the berthing of the line with respect to the location
of the loop support.
5. Loops cannot extend too far beyond an existing support or the overhang will cause the
loop to “loose its balance.” This sets the maximum allowable loop height.
6. The first two points have more influence on loop design than stress formulas, from the
piping point of view.
7. Three dimensional loops are widely used because this arrangement does not block the
routing of low temperature lines under the loop.
8. Vertical loops are placed at road crossings and sometimes are nonsymmetrically
located due to the location of the road

Method for Sizing Pipeway Loops:

1. Anchor lines near their center to determine which lines require loops by checking the
allowable expansion at each end of the run. If each end will absorb the resulting
expansion, no loop is required, usually. If the line spacing cannot be adjusted to take
the movement, a loop is required.
2. Determine which of the lines requiring loops need the largest loop, second largest,
etc., by the following:

 Multiply the total expansion of each line between its proposed anchors by the pipe’s
moment of inertia (E). (The stiffness of a line is measured by its “Moment of
inertia.”)
 The line with the largest of these calculated numbers will require the largest loop, the
next smaller number, the next smaller loop, etc.
 The above rule does not check stress. This is checked after the loops are roughly
dimensioned.

3. Fit the loops between two pipe supports using minimum spacing plus allowance for
line expansion and bowing. Make the loops as wide as possible, but keep the height to
a minimum. If stress or force is extremely high, check with stress engineer for height
of loop.
4. Send finished pipeway to stress for accurate calculation of anchor forces for
transmittal to Structural and accurate evaluation of stresses in the piping.