INTRODUCTION

Cylindrical or spherical vessels are commonly used in industry to serve as boilers or tanks.
When under pressure, the material of which they are made is subjected to a loading from all
directions. Although this is the case, the vessel can be analysed in a simple manner provided
it has a thin wall. In general, “ thin wall ” refers to a vessel having an inner-radius-to wall-
thickness ratio of 10 or more (r>t Ú 10). Specifically, when r>t = 10 the results of a thin-wall
analysis will predict a stress that is approximately 4% less than the actual maximum stress in
the vessel. For larger r>t ratios this error will be even smaller. Provided the vessel wall is
“thin,” the stress distribution throughout its thickness will not vary significantly, and so we
will assume that it is uniform or constant. Using this assumption, we will now analyse the
state of stress in thin-walled cylindrical and spherical pressure vessels. In both cases, the
pressure in the vessel is understood to be the gauge pressure, that is, it measures the pressure
above atmospheric pressure, since atmospheric pressure is assumed to exist both inside and
outside the vessel’s wall before the vessel is pressurized.

Thick walled cylinders and spherical pressure vessels are now widely used in many
applications like nuclear power plants for steam and power generation. Some of the thick-
walled cylinder applications may have very high pressures as 1380 MPa and high
temperatures which can go up to, resulting in the pressure vessel material holding immense
potential energy exerted by the working fluid. The high pressure for thick walled cylinder and
spherical pressure vessels needs proper understanding of the stress levels and distributions
along radial and hoop directions to minimize the probability of design failures. Moreover, the
thick-walled cylinder failures effects by material properties, type of fluid, and environmental
interactions. Now days, the thick-walled cylinder and spherical pressure vessels are great
important in many industries and their economic use often depends upon the occurrence of
small, controlled, permanent deformations.
ASSIGNMENT BACKGROUND

Determination of the radial and hoop stresses and strains in thick walled cylinder and thin
sphere under internal pressure. Also, is to study the cylinder and the sphere theoretically. In
addition, is to analysis the cylinder and sphere in plain strain, and axis symmetric by refining
the mesh, applying the boundary conditions and obtain the stresses. Moreover, to indicate
and elaborate the fundamental processes in this Project and discuss based on engineering or
technical facts and theories that learn in class. This topic serves as a review of the stress
analysis that has been developed in the previous chapters regarding axial load, torsion,
bending, and shear. We will discuss the solution of problems where several of these internal
loads occur simultaneously on a member’s cross section. Before doing this, however, the
topic begins with an analysis of stress developed in thin-walled pressure vessels.
DISCUSSION

THIN WALL PRESSURE VESSELS

Thin wall pressure vessels are in common use. We would like to consider two specific types.
Cylindrical pressure vessels, and spherical pressure vessels. By thin wall pressure vessel, we
will mean a container whose wall thickness is less than 1/10 of the radius of the container.
Under this condition, the stress in the wall may be considered uniform.

We first look at a cylindrical pressure vessel shown in diagram below, where we have cut a
cross section of the vessel and have shown the forces due to the internal pressure, and the
balancing forces due to the longitudinal stress which develops in the vessel walls. (There is
also a transverse or circumferential stress which develops, and which we will consider next.

The longitudinal stress may be found by equating the force due to internal gas/fluid pressure
with the force due to the longitudinal stress as follows:

P(A) = 𝜎𝐿 (A’); or P (3.1416 × R)× =𝜎𝐿 (2 × 3.1416 × R × t), then cancelling terms and
solving for the longitudinal stress, we have:

PR
𝜎𝐿 = ; where
2t

P = internal pressure in cylinder; R = radius of cylinder, t = wall thickness

To determine the relationship for the transverse stress, often called the hoop stress, we use the
same approach, but first cut the cylinder lengthwise as shown in Diagram 2.

We once again equate the force on the cylinder section wall due to the internal pressure with
the resistive force which develops in walls and may be expressed in terms of the hoop stress,
𝜎𝐻 . The effective area the internal pressure acts on may be considering to be the flat cross
section given by (2× R× L). So, we may write:

P(A) = 𝜎𝐻 (A’); or P (2× R× L) = 𝜎𝐻 (2× t× L), then cancelling terms and solving for the
hoop stress, we have:

PR
𝜎𝐻 = ; where
t

P = internal pressure in cylinder; R = radius of cylinder, t = wall thickness

We note that the hoop stress is twice the value of the longitudinal stress and is normally the
limiting factor. The vessel does not have to be a perfect cylinder. In any thin wall pressure
vessel in which the pressure is uniform and which has a cylindrical section, the stress in the
cylindrical section is given by the relationships above.