Abstract
Most ships and offshore structures are equipped with a variety of pipes, which inevitably contain curved portions. The structural design of these pipes mostly relies on the commercial code, CAESAR-II, which was especially developed for the structural analysis of pipes. This study conducted stress analyses of the same pipe unit, including loops, using both CAESAR-II and MSC/NASTRAN, and compared the results to investigate the characteristics of CAESAR-II. A parametric study was then conducted of the various design variables of pipe loops using CAESAR-II to draw some useful information about the structural characteristics of the loops.