Mechanism of Mechanical Analysis on Torsional Buckling of U-Shaped Bellows in FLNG Cryogenic Hoses

Abstract

Floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) cryogenic hoses can be employed for the transmission of liquefied natural gas (LNG). Usually, U-shaped metal bellows can be applied as the inner lining of FLNG cryogenic hoses. In installation, positioning and other working conditions, torsion is one of the main loads, and torsional buckling instability is a major failure mode of U-shaped metal bellows of FLNG cryogenic hoses. In the current research, the buckling instability of bellows under torsional loads has been investigated in detail, the mechanical mechanism of deformation in torsional buckling mode of bellows has been analyzed and the influence of the structural design parameters on the stability performance has been summarized. It was seen that the axis of the bellows was presented as a spiral line shape during the torsional buckling stage. At the same time, the torsional buckling properties of toroid and spiral bellows were analyzed. The obtained results showed that the torsional buckling stability of the spiral bellows was weaker than that of the toroid bellows and increase of the spiral angle of the spiral bellows intensified this trend. In addition, the post-buckling analysis of U-shaped bellows under torsional loads was carried out by means of experiments and finite element simulation. It was shown that the results obtained from finite element (FE) analysis in this research presented a relatively accurate critical torque value and a consistent buckling instability mode, compared with the experimental results. On this basis, the effects of common defects such as thickness thinning on the torsional stability of bellows were investigated. Considering the geometric defect of thickness thinning, the error of FE analysis was reduced further, and it was found that the defect could significantly decrease the stability of the bellows. The above analysis results could provide a reference for structural design and post-buckling analysis of bellows.