Can someone please tell me if I am entering socket welded elbows and tee's correctly?

1) For Elbows.....I am entering a socket at the end of the straight pipe at the location where the weld would physically be(i.e. the face of the socket weld elbow)....then the next element is a bend with the radius of the elbow with a socket at the start of the next piece of straight pipe at the face of the socket weld elbow. Does this sound correct.

2) On tee's, I am creating a welding tee which consists of the 3 short lengths of the tee with a welding tee called out at the intersection. Then at each "face" of the socket weld tee where the straight pipe starts/ends I am calling out a socket there.

Does this sound correct?

I couldn't find any examples of how to input these and this is what seemed to make sense t ome...can someone verify or tell me if I am doing this incorrectly?

Thanks!
Mike

I believe that will get what you want. At these elbow socket nodes you will intensify the same local forces and moments with the elbow SIFs on one side and the socket SIFs on the other. The only trouble I can see is if, for some reason, you would have a support at the socket - which I assume is poor design design. In this case, the analysis will result in different internal loads on the straight pipe side and the elbow side.

And then you might consider the socket welds as stiffeners for the elbow. So you can make it more complicated if you have the time.

My guess is that sooner or later, you will find that the component SIF will trump the socket SIF. (Please let us know if that is the case.)

The Code provides no guidance on combining the effects of two distinct SIFs.