In steel pressure pipe, the minimum

principal stresses x is usually internal

pressure which is opposite from maximum
principal stress, hoop stress, y. Internal
pressure x is usually small enough to be
neglected. The envelopes of Figure 30 are
based on x = 0. If value of y and z are
known, the corresponding strength can be
found as shown in Figure 4-36. Based on
shearing strength theory, the strength Figure 4-36: Strength envelope at elastic
envelope is shown dotted. Test shows that limit f by compound stress when x =0
the strength envelope for steel is more
nearly an ellipse as shown in solid line.

4.14.1 Huber-Hencky-von Mises Equation

One elastic strain-energy model for steel is the Huber-Hencky-von Mises equation which
subtracts out that part of strain energy that only results in volume change. Assuming that
x = 0, the equation for the strength envelope is:
y2+ z2 y*z = f2
The stresses are all principal stresses. For most buried pipe, the Huber-Hencky-von Mises
analysis is not justified. Above equation is based on elastic analysis. But elastic limit (yield
stress) is not necessarily the performance limit for buried steel pipe. If a section of pipeline
is capped such that z = y/2 (both in tension), from above equation the hoop strength y =
1.155*f. The increase in hoop strength is only 15.5%. It is conservative to design by
uniaxial stress analysis; i.e., critical stress is y = f.

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