A Study of Dynamic Pipe Clamp Design

The piping support or restraint design and analysis must meet or exceed requirements of the applicable ASME Codes and standards specified for loading conditions of nuclear power plants such as ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code, Section III, Division 1, Subsection NF. In the piping industry, various restraint types such as shock and energy absorbers, struts, dynamic clamps, etc., are used in the field to provide support between piping and building structures. This work primarily focuses on dynamic clamps, specifically, variations such as traditional 3-bolt dynamic clamps and dynamic yoke clamps. Dynamic yoke clamps have a close fit around the pipe and can be used in more applications than 3-bolt dynamic clamps such as instances of limited space, due to the smaller size of the clamps (distance from center of pipe to center of pin), and connections with larger binding angles. Additionally, finite element analysis is utilized to demonstrate superior performance of the yoke style clamp. Therefore, this study yields results that provide a strong substitute for the 3-bolt clamp. Previously, a 3-bolt clamp was the clamp of choice but the state-of-the-art design of a yoke style clamp makes it a better piping support for the dynamic application.