Advanced Materials Development and Performance (AMDP2011)

International Journal of Modern Physics: Conference Series

Vol. 6 (2012) 343-348
World Scientific Publishing Company
DOI: 10.1142/S2010194512003418

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THE EFFECT OF GEOMETRY ON FATIGUE LIFE FOR BELLOWS

JINBONG KIM
Dept. of Aeronautical & Mech. Eng, Hanseo University,
Seosan, Chungnam 356-706, KOREA
jbkim@hanseo.ac.kr

A bellows is a component installed in the automobile exhaust system to reduce or prevent the
impact from engine. Generally, the specifications on the bellows are determined in the system
design process of exhaust system and the component design is carried out to meet the
specifications such as stiffness. Consideration of fatigue is generally an important aspect of design
on metallic bellows expansion joints. These components are subject to displacement loading
which frequently results in cyclic strains. This study has been investigated to analyze the effect of
geometry on fatigue life for automotive bellows. 8 node shell element and non-linear method is
employed for the analysis. The optimized shapes of the bellows are expected to give good
guidelines to the practical designs.
Keywords: Stress Analysis; fatigue analysis; bellows.

1. Introduction
Bellows is adopted as important element to absorb expansion and contraction in order
to reduce stress in automobile exhaust system. Flexible connection between the exhaust
system and the manifold is necessary because of the rolling of engine. Some torsion takes
place because of the curved path of the exhaust system and considerable axial and
bending deflections must be allowed for. Using a rigid joint would give severe vibration
of the exhaust system, with noise and quick failure due to exceeded material strength as
consequences. Proper dimensioning requires deep understanding of the characteristics of
the bellows and their interaction with the rest of the exhaust system. Off-the-shelf
products seldom fit a specific application, which was experienced when bellows were
first introduced into exhaust systems.
Unlike most used piping components, the bellows consists of a thin walled shell of
revolution with a corrugated meridian, in order to provide the flexibility needed to absorb
mechanical movements. Because of geometric complex, it is difficult to analyze the
behavior of bellows. The axi-symmetrical deformation problems of the bellows have
been discussed.1,2 These problems were investigated by the finite difference method.3

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J.-B. Kim

Flexible metal bellows have been used for considerable time in other applications.
Numerous papers deal with various aspects of bellows, such as stresses due to internal
pressure and axial deflection, fatigue life estimations,4 column instability and scrim. A
good grasp of bellows research can also be gained from the conference proceedings of the
1989 ASME Pressure Vessels and Piping Conference.5 Andersson6 derived correction
factors relating the behavior of the bellows convolution to that of a simple strip beam.
This approach has subsequently been the basis of standards and other publications
presenting formulae for hand-calculation for bellows design.
Some formulae have been included in national pressure vessel codes, among which
the ASME code is the most well known. The most comprehensive and widely accepted
text on bellows design is however the Standards of the Expansion Joint Manufacturers
Association6 A comparison of the ASME code and the EJMA standards is given by
Hanna,7 concluding that the two conform quite well in most aspects. In addition, the
EJMA standards were compared with finite element and experimental analyses in some
papers.8
Even though, EJMA is benefit for the design of bellows, it is difficult to analyze the
behavior of bellows because of its complex geometry. The aim of this work is to
represent the effect of the geometric parameters on the mechanical behavior of U-shaped
bellows. The loading condition is under deflection at the end of bellows. The results
present optimal dimensions for the model used in the study.
2. Simulation Model
To obtain the bellows profile, it was modeled with the finite element code. The bellows
was meshed with 8 node shell elements and elastic - plastic non linear analysis was
performed. Figure 1 displays the geometry profile for the analysis model. The mesh
consists of 100,000 nodes and lateral displacement with 6mm was applied at the end for
boundary condition. Material properties used in analysis are described in Table 1 and
analysis parameters are described in Table 2. ANSYS was used as FE-solver for stress
analysis and the stresses and other results were imported from ANSYS into FEMFAT for
fatigue analysis.

Table 1 Material property and Finite Element Model

Thickness

Quantities of

Yield Stress

(mm)

Bellows

(MPa)

0.25

919

224(500)

Tangential

Young's

Modulus

Modulus

(MPa)

(GPa)

2,000

188

Type of Element

8-node Structural Shell

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The Effect of Geometry on Fatigue Life for Bellows

Fig. 1. Simulation Model

345

Fig. 2. Stress distribution with deformed shape

Table 2 Analysis Parameters

Radius of Convolution (mm)

1.4 2

Quantities of Pitch
9

17

Inner Diameter (mm)

40 65

3. Results and Discussions

Figure 2 represents stress distribution for the analysis result. The maximum stress occurs
at the secondary convolution root from straight tube as shown in Figure 2 and the
number of cycles to failure shown in Figure 3 is decided at this position. The S/N curve
result is as shown in Figure 3. On the basis of stress data from un-notched specimen,
local S/N curves are calculated at FEM nodes, which are influenced by local component
properties and loads. Figure 3 represents the S/N curve result for the model of 9
convolutions with inner radius of 20mm and radius of convolution of 1.7mm. Lower line
of left represents S/N curve for the base material from dumbbell type specimen test and
upper line of left side represents S/N obtained by FEMFAT for the actual bellows model
in the study. S/N curve for base material is obtained using dumbbell-type specimen and
S/N curve modified by FEMFAT using S/N curve for base material is obtained for
bellows modeled in the study. Obtained principal stress from FEM is 320MPa and the
number of cycles to failure for the model in Figure 3 is calculated as 4.89 x 105 cycles.
Experimental result shows that the specimen which is same size used in Figure 3 failed at
4.3 x 105 cycles. The other experimental results also show 10% to 15% difference in the
number of cycles to failure. These differences are resulted from experimental conditions
and materials in fatigue tests. Even though there are some differences between
experimental results and analysis results, the trend is similar in a number of results.

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J.-B. Kim

Calculated S/N Curve at present Node

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Specimen S/N curve

Fig. 3. S/N for bellows with 9 convolutions( inner radius of tube:20mm, radius of Convolution :1.7mm)
-The Number of failure cycles : 4.89 x 105 cycles, Applied stress : 320MPa

The number cycles to failure decreases linearly from 945,00cycles to 857,000cycles

according to increase of the radius of tube from 20mm to 32.5mm as shown in Figure 4.
It is caused by the increase of bending moment due to the increase of the radius of
bellows tube and the section modulus in the boundary condition of the constant bending
deflection. As bending moment increases, the principal stress increases as shown in
Figure 5 and the number of cycles to failure decreases.

X 105

Fig. 4. The number of cycles to failure versus

Inner Diameter of Bellows (Numbers of
Convolution: 19ea, Meridional radius of the
convolution crown : 2mm)

Fig. 5. The principal stress versus Inner Diameter

of Bellows (Numbers of Convolution: 19ea,
Meridional radius of the convolution crown :
2mm)

The Effect of Geometry on Fatigue Life for Bellows

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X 105

Fig. 6. The number of cycles to failure versus numbers

of convolution(Radius of Tube : 20mm, Meridional
radius of the convolution crown : 1.7mm, pitch :
5.88mm

Fig. 7. The Principal stress versus numbers of

convolution(Radius of Tube : 20mm, Meridional
radius of the convolution crown : 1.7mm, pitch :
5.88mm

Fig. 8. The number of cycles to failure versus radius of convolution (Radius of Tube:20mm, Numbers of
convolution: 19ea)

The number of cycles to failure increases from 4.5x105 cycles to 13x105 cycles with the
variation of convolution from 9 ea to 19 ea as shown in Figure 6. As numbers of
convolution increase, the principal stress decreases due to decrease of the bending
moment at the bending condition of same deflection as shown in Figure 7. As the
principal stress decreases, the number cycles to failure decreases. The number of cycles
to failure increases until 1,320,000cycles at 1.7mm of the meridional radius of the

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J.-B. Kim

convolution crown and decreases at the radius as shown in Figure 8. As the meridional
radius of the convolution crown increases, the stress concentration effect is decreased and
the number of cycles to failure increases. After the meridional radius of the convolution
crown becomes 1.7mm, the radius of bellows increases and bending moment increases.
As the bending stress increase with increment of bending moment, the number of cycles
to failure decreases.

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4. Conclusions
The results on the effect of geometry on fatigue life for automotive bellows can be
summarized as follows;
(1) The number of cycles to failure is the maximum at 1.7mm of the meridional radius
of the convolution crown for the model in the study.
(2) The number of cycles to failure decreases linearly according to the increase of the
bellows radius.
Acknowledgment
The author would like to thank Hanseo University for substantial support (Project code:
111Gong Hang 13).
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HUANG Qian, Applied Mathematics and Mechanics 7(6), 573-585, (1986).
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C. Becht IV, International J. of Pressure Vessels and Piping, 77. 843-850, (2000)
Becht IV C, Imazu A, Jetter R, Reimus WS, editors. ASME Pressure Vessels and Piping
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6. Anderson WF. Part II mathematical, Atomic International, NAA-SR-4527, United States
Atomic Energy Commission, (1965).
7. Hanna JW. , The 1989 ASME Pressure Vessels and Piping Conference, (1989), p. 7985.
8. Ting-Xin L, Bing-Liang G, Tian-Xiang L, Qing-Chen W. The 1989 ASME Pressure Vessels
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