Abstract
This paper investigates the reliability of district heating pipes at thermo-elastic fatigue loading. District heating pipes, subjected to $120^{\circ}C$ and $16kg_f/cm^2$ due to water distributing service through inside the pipes, should endure long term cyclic thermal-mechanical loadings. The heating pipes are the co-centric tubes of steel pipe, poly urethane(PUR) insulator, and high density poly ethylene(HDPE) case. On installation, foam pad is externally wrapped for accommodating stress reduction near the bend sections of pipes. However, there have been frequent reports on the failures of bend sections in the middle of long term service. This study scrutinizes the observed failures near the bend sections through applying the finite element methods. Specially in this study, heating pipes are studied on the influence of foam padding on failures and proposed new designs for reinforced bend without foam pad.
