Vibration induced fatigue failures (VIFFs) of pipework smallbore connections (SBCs) due to turbulent flow excitation continue to occur in process piping systems, resulting in elevated safety risks and costly interruptions to normal operations. One of the primary causes of these failures is poor design.
When the valve and pipe components in an SBC assembly combine to produce a fundamental natural frequency that is low, the connection is susceptible to vibration with high levels of displacement. The high bending stresses associated with these high displacements elevate the risk of VIFFs. Examples of high risk SBCs are presented in Fig.
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