Elastic-Plastic Calculation of a Dilatation Compensation Component

Compensators are elastic structures that have the role of taking over the axial displacements that occur in the junction areas of the technological equipment (pipelines or containers) through which the fluids circulate at pressures and high temperatures. These elastic structures, realized in a very wide range of shapes and sizes, are sujected by the inner pressure and an axial force produced by dilatation of structures in which they are mounted. The calculation of the expansion compensators raises many problems caused by the working regimes of the technological equipments they belong to. Following previous studies, undertaken by calculus and experimental, by the authors of this paper, it was found that in operation the state of stress in these elastic structures exceeds the flow limit of the material from which they are manufacturated. For this reason, in the present paper, the authors present the results of a calculus study, by FEM, on the stress and strain state, in the elasto-plastic regime of a leticular compensator. The calculation was made for two loading modes, separately applied and superimposed. The nonlinear mechanical behavior of this compensator is analyzed and discussed comparatively to the results of previous studies performed in elastic regime on the same type of compensator.