• Transactions of the Korean Society of Machine Tool Engineers
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.150-157
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• 2008

Bellows are commonly used in piping systems to absorb expansion and contraction in order to reduce stress. Unlike most piping components, bellows consist of a thin-walled shell of revolution with a corrugated meridian, in order to provide the flexibility needed to absorb mechanical movements. It is a composite shell structure consisting of at least one toroidal shell, an annular plate or conical shell. It is difficult to analyze the behavior of bellows because of its complex geometry. Simplified formulas for variable mechanical behaviors of bellows are provided by a standard called EJMA. An automatic design software for bellows is programming by using VBA(Visual Basic for Application) based on EJMA. Bellows engineers can effectively make a decision for bellows geometries because this software provides graphically design results in its post-processor. Bellows design software is expected to give quite a good guidance to practical design. The characteristics of bellows are also investigated through the automatic design process in bellows design software.