A displacement-based pipe elbow element

Abstract A new element for stress analysis of piping is presented. The element can handle interaction effects and can be seen as an enhancement of the element from Bathe and Almeida ( J. appl. Mech. 47 , 93–100, 1980). The necessary inter-element continuity for the elbow skin is assured through Hermitian interpolation of the ovalization pattern in the axial direction. The inclusion of warping for the elbow cross-section increases the element's capability. The main characteristics of the C 0 elbow element, the easy handling of boundary conditions and the satisfaction of the rigid-body mode criterion, are retained.