What You May Not Know About Pipe Bends

Abstract

Pipe bends are peculiar structures. Although the mechanisms that determine their behaviour are not that different from those of initially straight pipe, their relative contribution can be. This is amplified by shorter bend radii and thinner walls. Typical bends used in an offshore environment will have a radius of three to ten times their cross-section diameter and will behave differently than straight pipe of comparable dimensions. This paper aims to identify and quantify the key mechanisms that drive the behaviour of pipe bends in a deep-water environment. Their behaviour has been studied at global and local scales. The behaviour of bends seems not fully understood amongst academia and in the industry. This paper endeavours to demystify some of those peculiar behaviours, for example, why pipe bends tend to straighten during a mill pressure test.