Integrity assessment of defective pressurized pipelines by direct simplified methods

This paper is concerned with the integrity assessment of defective pressurized pipelines by direct simplified methods of limit and shakedown analysis. The effects considered here are part-through slots of various geometrical configurations. The engineering situation considered has practical importance in the pressure vessel and pipe industry. The results are compared with those obtained by step-by-step procedure using the professional code Abaqus and where possible, with those provided by semiempirical formulae of industrial use. The simplified (direct) method are found to be more economical and more reliable than marching solutions achieved by step-by-step evolutive elastic-plastic analysis. The integrity assessment of defective pressurized pipelines can be performed by means of direct nonevolutive methods instead of more costly time-stepping procedures.