×
INTELLIGENT WORK FORUMS
FOR ENGINEERING PROFESSIONALS

Log In

Come Join Us!

Are you an
Engineering professional?
Join Eng-Tips Forums!
  • Talk With Other Members
  • Be Notified Of Responses
    To Your Posts
  • Keyword Search
  • One-Click Access To Your
    Favorite Forums
  • Automated Signatures
    On Your Posts
  • Best Of All, It's Free!
  • Students Click Here

*Eng-Tips's functionality depends on members receiving e-mail. By joining you are opting in to receive e-mail.

Posting Guidelines

Promoting, selling, recruiting, coursework and thesis posting is forbidden.

Students Click Here

Jobs

Rigid Victaulic pipe couplers - How much moment can they carry?

Rigid Victaulic pipe couplers - How much moment can they carry?

Rigid Victaulic pipe couplers - How much moment can they carry?

(OP)
I have been asked to certify the support system for a 200 dia pipe system carrying water for a fire system. Most of these systems that I have designed in the past have been in motorway tunnels and we have used flexible couplers rather than rigid couplers for a variety of reasons. In this case my client has used Victaulic pipes and their rigid Victaulic 005 roll groove couplings. The Victaulic design handbook suggests that the system will act like a welded system in that it will behave rigidly but cautions about bending the pipes. Given that there are thousands of these hanging form buildings using rigid couplers they can clearly carry some bending. Every time loads move over the slab for example it causes some amount of bending in the pipe. In long span prestressed structures with large diameter pipes suspended below the stress in the pipe adjacent to couplers from traffic in a carpark will be large (say 200MPa) but in many office situations the bending moments on the rigid couplers will be minimal (say <50MPa).

Unfortunately here in Australia the reps for Victaulic seem to have no idea what bending moments these couplers can be designed for. If anyone out there can lend some light to the subject I'd be very appreciative?

RE: Rigid Victaulic pipe couplers - How much moment can they carry?

None that you can count on!

RE: Rigid Victaulic pipe couplers - How much moment can they carry?

They can handle at least as much bending as a concrete structure...

RE: Rigid Victaulic pipe couplers - How much moment can they carry?

They do provide a small amount of flexibility, but they are not designed to handle bending, only to provide axial restraint. suggest you post this in the piping forum to determine what type of bending they can be expected to resist. I would expect much less than welded pipe.

http://www.eng-tips.com/threadminder.cfm?pid=378

RE: Rigid Victaulic pipe couplers - How much moment can they carry?

How does that solve your issue? The tables assume a continuous pipe. The Victaulic coupling is almost a hinge. At the least, bending compromises the Victaulic proprietary connection slot.

RE: Rigid Victaulic pipe couplers - How much moment can they carry?

The text says that is the moment capacity of the coupling, about 1/3 or so the capacity of the pipe, and I would think entirely reasonable.

RE: Rigid Victaulic pipe couplers - How much moment can they carry?

(OP)
How does that solve your issue? The tables assume a continuous pipe. The Victaulic coupling is almost a hinge. At the least, bending compromises the Victaulic proprietary connection slot

Some of the couplers Victualic supply use are fixed (eg 005) and some are flexible (eg 07). The manual suggests that in terms of performance you can consider that the pipe will behave rigidly (like a welded pipe) if fixed couplers are used. This most recent advice from Victaulic appears to be suggesting that the fixed couplers are designed to carry quite a decent load. For example my 200 dia pipe can carry 11.31kNm. Stress in the pipe under this moment is only 51MPa so I assume the coupler is the weak link. I still need to enquire as to what factors of safety have been used and whether this represents a working stress or ultimate load limit etc but I appear to be heading in the right direction.

Red Flag This Post

Please let us know here why this post is inappropriate. Reasons such as off-topic, duplicates, flames, illegal, vulgar, or students posting their homework.

Red Flag Submitted

Thank you for helping keep Eng-Tips Forums free from inappropriate posts.
The Eng-Tips staff will check this out and take appropriate action.

Reply To This Thread

Posting in the Eng-Tips forums is a member-only feature.

Click Here to join Eng-Tips and talk with other members!


Resources