Investigation on Failure Behavior of Two-Elbow Piping System Models Made of the Simulation Material Under Excessive Seismic Loads

Abstract To investigate the failure behavior of piping systems under excessive seismic loads, shaking table tests on piping system models made of a simulation material have been executed. The simulation material adopted in the experiment was lead-antimony (Pb-Sb) alloy. The piping system model was composed of two elbows made of Pb-Sb alloy, one additional mass, and two fixed anchors. Input motions were sinusoidal wave. The failure modes of the piping system were examined by varying the additional mass and frequency of the input sinusoidal wave. Through the excitation tests, the failure mode which was named as “ratchet and subsequent collapse” was obtained successfully. The result which was classified as “no failure after 500 cycles” was also obtained. It was found that the occurrence of the failure depended on the ratio of the input frequency to the specimen’s natural frequency, and the ratio of additional mass weight to the limit mass weight. Though the effect of higher modes on the failure behavior was necessary to be more investigated, it seemed that the tendency of dominant failure behavior was similar to that of the single-elbow specimen investigated in the previous study. Moreover, it was confirmed that the experimental approach to use a simulation material was applicable for piping system model with multiple elbows.