Ken,

Over the last few years I have been able to check or review the work of several stress analysts from other offices. Surprisingly, I found that very few use Caesar's flanged-ell feature at all. The reason was they either didn't know that ells are stiffened by the flange or did not know how to take the additional stiffening into account.

Now, I personally always use CAESAR II's flanged-ell feature where appropriate. I have, however, done some experiments with it in the past and found that it makes very little difference to the results unless the ell in question is highly stressed with, or without, the additional stiffening. I'm not suggesting that the ell is not significantly stiffened--it certainly is; only that it makes little difference to real-world results.

But to return to your question, the answer is definitely No. The difference in stiffness between an ell attached to straight pipe as opposed to one attached to a tee or another ell is negligable and may even be lower.

Regards,