ELASTIC-PLASTIC ANALYSIS OF CYLINDRICAL PRESSURE VESSELS WITH VARIOUS END CLOSURES

Abstract

The present investigations have been made to carry out elastic and elastic-plastic analysis of cylindrical pressure vessels with various end closures viz., hemi-spherical, torispherical, semi-ellipsoidal, toriconical and reversed dished using the finite element method. A comprehensive set of results are reported in this study. It is felt that these results would be useful for the better design of pressure vessels. In this study a survey of literature and reference to various available pressure vessel codes brings to light the different experimental and theoretical methods for the design and analysis of pressure vessels. The traditional code's approach involves many incon-sistencies and consequent inaccuracies in the stresses and displacements, especially at the junctions. The experimental methods have their own difficulties inherent to them and the conventional theoretical approach is limited to simple shapes only. Out of the various numerical methods available finite element analysis is perhaps the best approach to the stress analysis of pressure vessels.