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What is Bellows Pressure Thrust?

Pressure thrust is present in all pressurized piping systems. It is simply the gage pressure times the inside area of the pipe. It acts at changes in direction, such as elbows, and
at changes in pipe cross section, such as reducers. Pressure thrust is normally carried as an axial load by the pipe. However, inclusion of a bellows expansion joint, which is not
intended to carry such axial loads, removes the normal means of resisting the pressure thrust. Therefore, other means, such as pipe anchors and hardware on the bellows such
as tie rods, is required to carry the pressure thrust load.
The pressure thrust is the gage pressure times the area within the mean diameter (Dm) of a metallic bellows expansion joint. It can be helpful in system design to understand
where the forces actually occur. Some pipe stress software use the simplifying assumption in the analysis that the force acts at the bellows, but only part of the force actually
acts at that location.
Take for example an elbow, with a straight run of pipe to an expansion joint. A pressure thrust force acts at the elbow, which is P*pi*d
2
/4 where d is the inside diameter of the
pipe. The pressure times the area between the inside diameter of the bellows and the inside diameter of the pipe acts at the end of the bellows. An additional area is on the
sidewall of the bellows convolution. Half of the pressure thrust acting on the end sidewall is balanced with that acting on the adjacent side of the convolution, across the bellows
crown. The other half of the pressure thrust pushes against the pipe, and is part of what is calculated as the bellows pressure thrust. So the total bellows pressure thrust is
P*pi*Dm
2
/4, of which
P*pi*(Dm
2
d
2
)/4 is acting at the end of the bellows, pushing on the pipe if the bellows in under internal pressure.
If there is an anchor between an elbow and an unrestrained (meaning the expansion joint does not include hardware to carry the pressure thrust) bellows expansion joint that is
intended to carry the pressure thrust, the load would be P*pi*Dm
2
/4. If there is an unrestrained bellows expansion joint in pipe connected to a vessel nozzle, there is a pressure
thrust load
acting on the nozzle which is P*pi*(Dm
2
d
2
)/4 where d in this case is the inside diameter of the nozzle and a load acting on the vessel wall opposite the nozzle of P*pi*d
2
/4.
The entire pressure thrust load of P*pi*Dm
2
/4 is acting on the vessel and must be resisted by the vessel foundation. Note the difference in pressure thrust force acting on the
nozzle, which is P*pi*d
2
/4 for a pipe without an expansion joint and P*pi*(Dm
2
d
2
)/4 for a pipe with an unrestrained expansion joint, and the direction of the force is reversed.

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