Experimental Demonstration of Failure Modes on Bellows Structures Subject to Internal Pressure

In this study, in order to develop the evaluation method of the pressure toughness of bellows structures under the beyond design base event, the pressure failure tests and finite element analysis (FEA) of the bellows structures subjected to internal pressure were performed. Since the several tests and FEA results were reported previously by current authors, the additional tests were performed by the specimen simulating the real setting situation in the actual plant and for demonstrating the plain failure modes. Test specimens consist of the single and double ply bellows made of SUS304 were used. Total five specimens were tested, and one specimen was attached the guard pipe around the bellows to simulate the actual situation in the plant to confirm the effect of the neighbor structures to the ultimate toughness. The maximum pressure obtained in all tests were over 10 times larger than the estimated results of limiting design pressure based on in-plain instability by the EJMA standards; although the test specimens were pressurized exceed the pressure of buckling deformation. Because it is very difficult problem to simulate the inversion of the convolution accompanied convolutions contact for FEA with implicit method, FEA with simplified technique and explicit analysis were performed to simulating the complex deformation of the test specimen, and then these results were estimated in some procedures to compare with the test results. Three failure modes identified in the tests, however, the complex deformation behavior make it difficult to simulate by ordinary FEA procedure and to estimate the ultimate toughness of the bellows structures under the internal pressure. Therefore several kinds of idea for evaluating the ultimate toughness of the bellows structures were execute and suggested.