Mechanical Design 2

A./Professor Akbar Khatibi

Cause of PV accidents
• Faulty design and manufacturing of vessels
• Operator negligence
• Operating the unit than the specified pressure
• Improper installation
• Corrosion and cracking
• Use of poor quality materials
• Improper repair of leakage
• Excessive temperature Operation, design and manufacturing
of pressure vessels are controlled by
laws.
Law requirements

1. Design by certified designers

2. Fabrication by certified welders

3. Welds to be inspected

4. Vessels to be tested in factories

5. Certified operators

6. Regular independent inspections

Construction of pressure vessels
Joint efficiency
Full penetration butt welds loaded in tension may be used on the main longitudinal
joints on a cylindrical pressure vessel.

Allowed stress across the joint

Joint Efficiency =
Allowed stress in plate
Joint efficiency
Various lap joints with full fillet welds are permitted on some circumferential and
longitudinal joints in Class 3 vessels.

Joint efficiency: from 45 to 55%

• The allowable load on other fillet welds

shall be based on the minimum design Throat thickness
throat area of the weld.
• The minimum design throat area is the
throat thickness of the fillet multiplied by
the effective weld length.
Design strength
• Need to use the standard to select the appropriate material of the pressure vessel

• Design tensile strength of different materials suitable for pressure vessels is given in the standard

• The factor of safety has been implicitly included in the tables.

Design strength
• The design tensile strength, often multiplied by the joint efficiency, is used as the allowable tensile stress
in equations for finding the necessary minimum thickness of a vessel wall.
• Obviously the allowable stress will be some fraction of the stress that would cause failure i.e. it will
incorporate a factor of safety.

The rules used for this determination of the design tensile strength are given in Appendix A of AS1210
Design strength
Modes of failure

Yield Creep

Brittle fracture Buckling

Fatigue
Loads on pressure vessels
Combined loading versus uniaxial loading?
Uniaxial loading
Combined loading
Combined loading
Failure theories T: uniaxial tensile strength
S: shear strength

Tresca Criterion, Critical Shear Stress Mises Criterion, Critical Distortional Energy
For the principal stresses ordered as σ1 ≥ σ2 ≥ σ3 then
Stress in a vessel due to pressure
Tangential (Circumference) stress
Longitudinal (axial) stress
Radial (thickness)
Combined loading in a pressure vessel
Thickness of a vessel due to pressure

• Extra thickness for corrosion

• Considering tolerance band
• Possibility of thinning during forming etc. operations
Other vessel loads & stresses
• Pressure vessels experience loadings
in addition to those from pressure,
such as wind, earthquake, weight and
inertia effects, thrust or pull from
expanding and contracting pipes etc.
Qr 2Q
 shear  
J  D( D  t )t
 4M
p D W 
2

 z   z (pressure)   z (weight)  2 D
 t(D  t)

p( D  t )
S membrane 
2t
Semi ellipsoid ends - Stresses

The presence of a compressive hoop

stress has the potential to cause:

• Local buckling

• Local yielding due to the high shear

stress that results from the
combination of a tensile longitudinal
stress and a compressive hoop stress
(consider corresponding Mohr’s
circle)
Semi ellipsoid ends - Thickness
PD  a 
 z       f
2t  2b 

 a 
PD 
 2b  PDK
t t
2 f 2 f  P

1   2a  
 2

K  2 
6   2b  
Problem - 5
• A cylindrical pressure vessel of an internal diameter of 1829mm is to have a
design pressure of 0.86 MPa. The longitudinal weld will have a joint efficiency of
85%. A life of 30 years is desired when exposed to a corrosion rate of 0.125mm
per annum. Determine the nominal thickness of steel plate that must be ordered
from the supplier given that the design tensile strength of the material is 115
MPa and there is a tolerance on nominal thickness of + 10%. The commercial
thicknesses are in 0.5 mm increments. Assume the only loads on the vessel are
those due to pressure.
Openings in cylindrical pressure vessels
• Branches and manholes
Openings in cylindrical pressure vessels
• Stress concentration around a hole
Openings in cylindrical pressure vessels
• Stress concentration around a hole


Openings in cylindrical pressure vessels

• Immediately adjacent to the hole the hoop stress is 2.5 times what it would
be far distant from the hole.

• This stress has fallen to 1.23 times the undisturbed value at a radial
distance from the centreline equal to the diameter of the hole, i.e. the
effect of the hole is not being greatly felt beyond this distance.

• Spare or added metal beyond this distance (r=2a) cannot significantly help
to carry the high loads near the hole.
Openings in cylindrical pressure vessels
Joint Design tensile
• Force carrying capability Efficiency strength

Last metal to be compensated

Openings in cylindrical pressure vessels
pD
• Minimum thickness was calculated considering the joint efficiency: t 
2 f  p
pD
• Away from the seam the minimum required thickness is less, since η=1: t
2f  p
Openings in cylindrical pressure vessels
Spare metal claim: T1 + C is the thickness of the vessel
• C: Corrosion allowance
• Tb1: Connection thickness
Openings in cylindrical pressure vessels
Spare metal claim – A1 under-utilised wall thickness
Openings in cylindrical pressure vessels
Spare metal claim – A1 under-utilised wall thickness A1  (T1  t )d

AS1210 in 3.18.10.4(1) gives an equation for A1 that takes into account the situations where the opening is in a
seam, the branch tensile strength is less than that of the vessel wall.
Openings in cylindrical pressure vessels
pD
• Spare metal claim – A2 under-utilised branch thickness tb 
2f  p
Openings in cylindrical pressure vessels
Spare metal claim – A3 branch wall inside vessel
A4 welds
Openings in cylindrical pressure vessels
Spare metal claim – A4 area of weld from “th”
Openings in cylindrical pressure vessels
If A1+A2+A3+A4 < A then: need
for reinforcement ring (A5)

• Adding too much reinforcing area A5 is inadvisable as

it causes a locally stiffer area which won’t expand
uniformly with the rest of the vessel when it is
pressurized.

• This in turn creates a stress concentration effect

which is what the reinforcing was supposed to
prevent in the first place!
Openings in cylindrical pressure vessels
Spare metal claim – A5 Compensating Ring
Openings in cylindrical pressure vessels
To compensate the missing area (normal stress):

Force carrying capability of all areas

separate from the vessel wall:

(Tb1  T1 )  A2  A3  A4  A5  f

Force carrying capacity of the

welds (shear stress)?
Openings in cylindrical pressure vessels
Strengths of attachment welds: possible failure paths
Openings in cylindrical pressure vessels
Strengths of attachment welds: failure path 3-3
Openings in cylindrical pressure vessels
Strengths of attachment welds: failure path 3-3
Openings in cylindrical pressure vessels
Strengths of attachment welds: failure path 3-3

The allowable stress in the weld (or component if one is on the failure path) is obtained by
multiplying the design strength of the material that is being welded (or the component) by the
following % factors (obtained from Clause 3.19.3.5):

(a) Fillet weld in end shear : 70%

(b) Butt weld in tension : 74%
(c) Butt weld in shear : 60%

Check point: W4  W5  W6  (Tb1  T1 )  A2  A3  A4  A5  f

Problem - 6 Not to scale
All dimensions in millimeters

The diagram shows one possible arrangement of branch connection to a cylindrical pressure vessel. The fluid
contained is non-corrosive and the design pressure is 2.0 MPa. At the design temperature, the design tensile
strength of the shell, branch and compensating ring material is 121 MPa. The internal diameters of the
vessel and branch are 1200mm and 240mm respectively. The branch is seamless, and is joined to the vessel
wall well clear of the main seams in the vessel wall. The opening is used for inspection purposes only. The
main longitudinal seam in the vessel wall has a joint efficiency of 85%.
Problem - 6 Not to scale
All dimensions in millimeters

(a) Determine the thickness the vessel wall needs to be, to contain the pressure at a position
(i) where the longitudinal joint is.
(ii) away from where the longitudinal joint is.
(b) Determine the cross-sectional area of metal that must be found adjacent to the opening to compensate for the
presence of the opening.
(c) Itemise and quantify the area contributions to reinforcement of the opening made by the various components adjacent to
the opening and determine if the compensating ring is adequate. For the purpose of this question take the limits of
reinforcement:
-measured parallel to the wall from the centreline of the opening, to be equal to the diameter of the opening;
-measured normal to the vessel wall, to be equal to 2.5 times the branch wall thickness, plus the thickness of the
compensating ring.
Problem - 6 Not to scale
All dimensions in millimetres

(d) (i) Determine the strength, in Newtons, that the reinforcing elements external to the vessel wall contribute.

(ii) For the failure path shown by the dotted lines f….. f, determine the strength of the welds in Newtons and
determine if they are adequate.

The allowable stresses in welds in this context are for the purposes of this question to be as follows.

Fillet weld in end shear 50% ) of the design tensile

Butt weld in tension 74% ) strength of the material
Butt weld in shear 60% ) being welded