WRC 537 ✓ Most Recent

WRC Bulletin 537 is intended to facilitate implementation of the widely required and used relations found in the March 1979 revision of WRC Bulletin 107 for local stresses in spherical and cylindrical shells due to external loadings. The original analytical and experimental work of WRC's Pressure Vessel Research Council has become an essential tool for pressure vessel design for 45 years and in its present form for over 30 years. WRC Bulletin 537 has been prepared in response to numerous requests over the years for the precise equations depicted in the figures given in WRC Bulletin 107 (1979 Edition). The objective was to eliminate potential errors in implementation, facilitate proper interpolation and extrapolation and permit efficient computation with modern computers.

David A. Osage organized the extensive effort to precisely capture the details of each curve in every single figure and develop the complex mathematical relations which render the new document useful for modern engineering practice. Involved in developing the equations and checking the results on Dave Osage's team were Mary Buchheim, David Amos, Tiffany Shaughnessy, and Debbie Samodell. Mike Straub offered WRC his work at digitizing the numerous curves found in WRC Bulletin 107 to facilitate this effort.

Welding Research Council, Inc. will no longer deliver WRC Bulletin 107 when requested for purchase. WRC Bulletin 537 provides the same content in a more useful and clearer format that also facilitates computer implementation. Those responsible for codes, standards, and specifications that recommend or require use of WRC Bulletin 107 should amend those documents to directly reference WRC Bulletin 537. WRC Bulletin 537 is the equivalent to WRC Bulletin 107 and provides the same acceptable basis for design.

WRC Bulletin 537 3rd Edition, published in March 2022, replaces 2nd Edition, published in October 2020.