Design Guidance for Elastic Followup

The basic mechanism of elastic followup is discussed in relation to piping design. It is shown how mechanistic insight gained from solutions for a two-bar problem can be used to identify dominant design parameters and to determine appropriate modifications where elastic followup is a potential problem. It is generally recognized that quantitative criteria are needed for elastic followup in the creep range where severe unbalance in the stiffness of connected line segments can pose potential problems. Approaches for criteria development are discussed.