‘Hot sustained’ stress – comparison of methods

In the past few years there has been an increased focus on the so-called ‘hot sustained’ stress in piping system analyses. The ASME B31.3 2006 edition clarified that Sustained stress requirements must be met for all operating conditions of a piping system. There had always been practitioners whose view was that any stress due to change in temperature should … Read more

B31.3 Code Issue – Non-conservative Sustained Stress

I would like to highlight an issue in ASME B31.3 that’s been sitting there underneath most of our noses for several years. Depending on your interpretation of the Code (or that of your pipe stress software) this can result in significant under-prediction of sustained and occasional bending and torsional stresses at reducing intersections. [Edit March 2017: … Read more