Finite Element simulation of ring stiffness test for high-density polyethylene (HDPE) pipes

Description

This work is concerned with the numerical simulation of the ring stiffness test of three representative polymeric pipes (diameters 1500 mm, 2100 mm, 2400 mm). Both the theoretical cross sections and real samples –which notably differed from one another– were provided by the company Asset International Ltd. The simulation was carried out by means of the finite element method, which required the digitalisation of these complex geometries. The digital cross sections were generated out of a massive number of 3D scanned points. Due to the fact that numerous analyses were to be performed, an automated procedure for the geometry generation and the finite element analyses was developed, for which only a cloud of scanned data points and the pipe diameter are to be provided. After the geometry is created, a model needs to be developed so that it exhibits a convenient compromise between accuracy and efficiency. The desirable accuracy/efficiency ratio depends on the aim of the simulation, and is affected by several factors that were thoroughly investigated within this work. Thus, numerous analyses were carried out using modules of the finite element package Altair Hyperworks with different trade-offs between accuracy and efficiency.

Period	Jul 2007 - Jan 2008
Work for	Asset International Ltd., United Kingdom