The Design of Mitred Bends—A Background to BS 806 : 1975 Amendment No 3

To satisfy a requirement within the high pressure pipework industry in the UK, PVE/10 of the British Standards Institution established a Working Party to produce recommendations on the design and application of gusseted or mitred bends. The ultimate conclusions of the Working Party were eventually published within Amendment AMD 3545 to BS 806 ‘Ferrous pipes and piping installations for and in connection with land boilers’. Prior to this amendment BS 806 provided only limited guidance on the design of such bends, based on rules derived from custom and practice.AMD 3545 provides more extensive guidance than previously, based on experimental data and analysis and provides guidance on pipework design. This paper describes the background to the amendment and provides most of the reasoning behind the conclusions drawn by the Working Party.