WRC 108 ✓ Most Recent

This Bulletin contains the results of a study which was conducted to determine stress distributions in thin-walled cylindrical and spherical pressure vessels with circular nozzles. Both vessels had a diameter-to-thickness ratio of approximately 240 and a nozzle diameter equal to one-half the vessel diameter. Both vessels were fabricated using 12 gage hot-rolled sheet steel. Electrical resistance strain gages were used for the stress determinations. Stress distributions were determined in each of the vessels for internal pressure, axial thrust on the nozzle, and external moment, forms of loading. For the spherical shell model the measured stress distributions were consistent for all forms of loading with predictions based on available theory. In the case of the cylindrical model, however, a region of high stress was located in the fillet between the cylinder and the nozzle approximately 60 to 7 inches from the longitudinal axis of the vessel for both internal pressure and longitudinal moment forms of loading. Results from an analytical solution by Eringen for the cylinder-to-cylinder intersection problem had indicated the possibility of such a distribution for internal pressure. For the case of longitudinal moment, the presence of the maximum stress approximately 60" from the longitudinal axis was completely unexpected. See more