Design Charts for Spacing of Vacuum Line Supports

摘要

This paper presents design tables and graphs to aid engineers and designers in the selection of support spacing for vacuum beam lines and other vacuum pipes. This data applies to support spacing for thin wall pipes and tubes under an internal vacuum (or open to atmosphere) and subject to external atmospheric pressure. Data is generated from the equations for a simply supported thin walled pipe or tube of circular cross section. These tables and graphs indicate what the minimum spacing of supports is for a pipe or tube of a given radius and supply data for carbon steel, stainless steel, aluminum and copper materials. The wall thickness of the pipe and tube is limited to 1/10 of the pipe radius (T << R/10). A thickness of R/10 results in a decrease in the length values in the attached tables of 10%, whereas a thickness of R/100 results in a decrease in the length values in the attached tables of 1%. Snow loads, wind loads, equipment loads, etc. are not included in the tables and graphs. This data is applicable for vacuum pipes or tubes under its own static dead weight. (ERA citation 12:043723)