International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering

Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 5, Issue 3, March 2015)

Finite Element Analysis of Fiber Reinforced Plastic Pressure

Vessel Designed by ASME Section X.
A. A. Shaikh1, Rajiv A. Mistry2
1

Associate Professor, Mechanical Engg. Dept., S.V. National Institute of Technology, Surat (India)
2
Deputy General Manager, Essar Learning Centre, Essar Steel India Ltd., Hazira, Surat (India)
H. Estrada et al. [3] have done the strength and leakage
finite element analysis of a Glass Fiber Reinforced Plastic
(GFRP) flange joint. Tomonori Kaneko et al. [4] have done
the finite element method failure analysis of a pressurized
FRP cylinder under transverse impact loading. P. Xu et al.
[5] have done the finite element analysis of burst pressure
of composite hydrogen storage vessels. By finite element
analysis and experimentation, they have concluded that the
TsaiWu failure criterion leads to most accurate failure
pressure among all failure criterions.
For design and fabrication of FRP pressure vessels,
ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code Section X: FiberReinforced Plastic pressure vessels has been widely used.
The present work deals with the finite element analysis of
FRP pressure vessel subjected to internal design pressure of
15.5 psig (106.86 kPa) which was designed with the
methodology given in ASME Section X including material
testing.
A. A. Shaikh et al. [6] have already designed the FRP
pressure vessel subjected to internal design pressure of 15.5
psig (106.86 kPa) with the methodology given in ASME
Section X including material testing. As per this
methodology, to design FRP pressure vessel, mechanical
properties of FRP material like Modulus of Elasticity,
Flexural Modulus and Poissons Ratio are required. To find
out these properties they have manufactured one flat
sample panel. The thickness was taken as per ASTM D
3039. The selection of resin and fiber for this panel was
done as per ASME Section X. It was manufactured from
Isophthalic Polyester resin and E glass fiber, Chopped
Strand Mat (CSM) by a commercial fabricator using a hand
lay-up technique. Tension tests were carried out on
specimens cut from same flat sample panel. After design,
FRP pressure vessels will also be made by the same resin,
fiber, fabrication method and manufacturer. Fig. 1 shows
the overall dimensions of shell and nozzle with nozzle
location. The specification of nozzle has been given in
Table I.

Abstract Finite element analysis of fiber reinforced

plastic pressure vessel which was designed in accordance with
the procedures set out in ASME Section X including material
testing was done. The vessel was subjected to internal design
pressure of 15.5 psig. (106.86 kPa) All the loads which have
been generated by internal pressure were considered for finite
element analysis. The result of finite element analysis shows
that the design of fiber reinforced plastic pressure vessel is
safe for considered internal pressure.
Keywords ASME Section X, Design, Failure Index, Fiber
Reinforced Plastic pressure vessel, Finite Element Analysis.

I. INTRODUCTION
In Fiber Reinforced Plastic (FRP) pressure vessels used
for the chemical processing industry, fiber glass and
polyester are usually employed. These materials are
combined together and used to form the wall thickness of
the vessel in the form of mat lamina or woven roving
lamina, or they can be filament wound. For parts of FRP
vessel where there is no discontinuity, the stress and strain
analysis is fairly simple and classical lamination theory can
be used successfully. For discontinuous regions, such as
nozzles, manhole connections etc., it is very difficult to do
stress and strain analysis. The Finite Element Method
(FEM) has been proved to be a good analytical technique
for metallic structures of complex geometries having
isotropic material. However, fiber reinforced plastic
materials are anisotropic and special finite elements have
been used to do the stress and strain analysis of these
materials.
Good amount of work has been reported for the finite
element analysis of FRP pressure vessels. G. Laschet et al.
[1] have done the finite element failure analysis of
composite pressure vessels wound by wide plies. P.D
Soden et al. [2] have done the stresses and strains analysis
of hemispherical GRP pressure vessels with radial
cylindrical branch connections using finite element
analysis. They have observed that the finite element
approach is shown to give good agreement with
experimental results.

633

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Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 5, Issue 3, March 2015)

Fig.2 Dimensions of reinforcing pad and nozzle overlays [6]

Final dimensions of FRP pressure

reinforcement pad are given below [6].

3 in.(0.0762 m)

Table I
Specifications Of Nozzle [6]

Nominal
Size (in.)

Elevation
(in.)

3) Thickness of secondary overlay on nozzle (tb)

= 0.25 in.(0.00635 m)

Orientation
(Deg.)

and

1) Shell Thickness (t) = 0.5614 in.(0.01425 m)

2) Length of secondary overlay on nozzle (Lb) =

Fig.1 Overall dimensions of shell and nozzle with nozzle location.[6]

Mark

vessel

90

Location

4) Thickness of reinforcement pad on shell (tp) =

Shell

5) Length of Reinforcing Pad on shell (Lp) = 3

0.5175 in.(0.01314 m)
in.(0.0762 m)
Table II lists the nozzle and nozzle flange dimensions
and Table III lists the shell flange dimension for the FRP
pressure vessel.

Typical dimensions of reinforcement pad and nozzle

overlay are given in Fig. 2

TABLE II
NOZZLE AND NOZZLE FLANGE DIMENSIONS [6]

Mark
A

Nominal
Size(in.)
3

Flange
OD(in.)
7 1/2

Bolt
( in.)
6

Circle

Bolt Hole
Dia. (in.)
3/4

Bolt Size(in.) and

Number
5/8 and 4

Flange
Thickness (in.)
1/2

Nozzle
Thickness (in.)
1/4

TABLE III
SHELL FLANGE DIMENSIONS [6]

Nominal
Size(in.)
12

Flange
OD(in.)
19

Bolt
(in.)
17

Circle

Bolt Hole
Dia. (in.)
1

Bolt Size(in.) and

Number
7/8 and 12

Flange
Thickness(in.)
13/16

Shell Thickness (in.)

0.5614 (As per design
calculations)

Shell Diameter for geometric model: 12.5614

in.(0.31905 m)
Nozzle diameter for geometric model: 3.25
in.(0.08255 m)
Fig. 3 shows the geometric model for FEA.

II. FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS OF FRP PRESSURE VESSEL

A. Geometrical Model:
For Finite Element Analysis (FEA), ABAQUS 6.12 was
used. In this software, to do the FEA of composite material,
the surface model is required so for FRP vessel, the
dimensions of mid surface for geometric model have been
calculated, which are given below.

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A. A. Shaikh et al. [6] have already done the tensile test
of test specimens so tensile failure stress in axial and hoop
direction was taken from that reference. The compressive
failure stress in axial direction, hoop direction and the shear
strength of mat laminate were taken by approximation. This
approximation was based on the standard properties of
glass-polymer composites given in literature [7] and
calculated with respected to tensile failure stress obtained
by tensile test.
C Finite Element Mesh properties:
For meshing, element S8R from ABAQUS element
library has been used. It is 8 nodded quadrilateral element
with 6 degree of freedom per node (3 translation and 3
rotation).Sufficient partisans have been made for increasing
mesh density at sensitive regions. Total element generated
in the finite element model is 9079 and total node
generated is 27474. Fig. 4 shows the geometric model with
mesh.

Fig. 3 Geometric model for FEA

Material Properties:
The elastic properties and failure propertied of mat
laminate which were entered in the software have been
shown in table no IV and V respectively.
B.

TABLE IV
ELASTIC PROPERTIES OF MAT LAMINATE [6]

Tensile
modulus
direction(E1)
Tensile
modulus
direction(E2)

in

axial

184714.27 psi

in

hoop

184714.27 psi

axial
hoop

0.32

hoop
axial

0.32

Poissons ratio for stress in

direction and contraction in
direction(1)
Poissons ratio for stress in
direction and contraction in
direction(2)
Shear Modulus( G )

Fig.4 Geometric model with mesh

D Boundary conditions:
Following boundary conditions have been applied on the
geometric model.

69967.52 psi

TABLE V
FAILURE PROPERTIES OF MAT LAMINATE

Tensile failure stress in axial

1) Restraining Condition:
Annular area due to bolt on shell bottom flange was fully
restrained for the analysis as vessel is supported from this
portion.

14851.66 psi

direction (1T)
Compressive failure stress in axial

-11716.14 psi

direction (1C)
Tensile failure stress in hoop

2) Applied Load:
Internal Pressure: After design, this vessel will be
fabricated and burst test will be carried out by filling the
vessel with water and applying hydrostatic pressure. So in
this case the internal pressure used in design computations
for each component is the sum of the design pressure and
the hydrostatic pressure at the component.

14851.66 psi

direction (2T)
Compressive failure stress in

-11716.14 psi

hoop direction (2C)

Shear strength (12)

7572.42 psi

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Table VI lists the component wise internal pressures for
different components.
TABLE VI
COMPONENT WISE INTERNAL PRESSURE [6]

Component
Shell
Nozzle A

Height h ( in.)
24
12

P (psig)
16.3664
15.9332

For conservative side, internal pressure of 16.3664 psi

(112.84 kPa) was applied at all the inner surface of the
vessel.
Reaction pressure due to internal pressure on shell top
flange (RFs): It was calculated as per the below formula
and applied at annular area due to bolt on top shell flange.
RFs = P Ri2/Asf = 34.66 psi. (238.97 kPa)
Where Ri = Shell inner radius = 6 in., P = Internal
pressure = 16.3664 psi, Asf = Annular area due to bolts on
shell top flange = /4 (182-162) = 53.4 in.2
Reaction pressure due to internal pressure on nozzle
flange (RFn): It has been calculated as per the below
formula and applied at annular area due to bolt on nozzle
flange.

Fig.5 Geometric model with boundary conditions

In ABAQUS, failure criteria are presented using the

notation of Failure Index [8] and it is define as
IF = Stress / Strength
Failure is predicted when IF 1. It means that the failure
of any component made from composite material takes
place when the maximum stress as per the particular failure
criterion, produced in the component is greater than or
equal to the failure strength of the composite material of
the same component based on same failure criterion.
Fig. 6 shows the value of failure index for FRP pressure
vessel using Tsai-Wu failure criterion.

RFn = P ri2/ Anf = 8.18 psi. (56.40 kPa)

Where ri = Nozzle inner radius = 1.5 in., P = Internal
pressure = 16.3664 psi, Anf = Annular area due to bolts on
nozzle flange = /4 (6.752-5.252) = 14.13 in.2
Fig. 5 shows the geometric model with boundary
conditions for FEA.
After applying all the boundary conditions as mentioned,
the whole finite element (FE) model has been solved.
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Several phenomenological failure criteria on the initial
failure of composite laminates have been developed in
terms of their properties with regard to the complicated
nature of laminates. These failure criteria which appear
representative of most of those are the maximum stress,
Hoffman, TsaiHill and TsaiWu criteria. Among all
these failure criterions, TsaiWu failure criterion leads to
most accurate failure pressure for FRP pressure vessels.[5]
So Tsai-Wu failure criterion was used for the failure
analysis of FRP pressure vessel.

Fig.6 Failure Index for FRP pressure vessel using Tsai-Wu failure
criterion

636

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Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 5, Issue 3, March 2015)
From Fig. 6 it is clear that the maximum value of failure
index using Tsai-Wu criterion for FRP pressure vessel is
around 0.1011 which is less than 1. So FRP pressure vessel
is safe for applied internal pressure. Though
the
compressive failure stress in axial direction, hoop direction
and the shear strength of mat laminate were taken by
approximation based on the standard properties of glasspolymer composites given in literature, the value of I F is
much lower than 1. The maximum value of IF (0.1011) is at
shell region which is nearer to the flange to shell junction.
It is obvious because weak region at nozzle to shell
junction was already strengthened by the reinforcement.

3) The FEM shows good closeness with respect to the

design dimensions obtained through ASME section X.
Hence this methodology can be applied with enough
confidence to predict the state of stress in FRP pressure
vessel also.
REFERENCES
[1]

[2]

[3]

IV. CONCLUSION
In present work, the finite element analysis of FRP
pressure vessel which was designed with the methodology
given in ASME Section X including material testing has
been done. The vessel was designed by considering internal
design pressure of 15.5 psig. (106.86 kPa) The finite
element analysis was done by considering all loads
generated by internal pressurization. Tsai-Wu failure
criterion was used for the analysis of FRP pressure vessel.
Following conclusions are drawn.
1) The maximum value of failure index using Tsai-Wu
criterion for whole FRP pressure vessel is 0.1011 at shell
region which is nearer to the flange to shell junction. This
value is less than 1 which shows that FRP pressure vessel is
safe for total internal pressure
(Internal design pressure
+ Hydrostatic Pressure) of 16.3664 psi. (112.83 kPa)
2) The maximum value of failure index using Tsai-Wu
criterion near sensitive region (Nozzle to shell junction) is
0.0164. This value is quite below than 1 which shows that
this sensitive region is sufficiently strengthen by the
reinforcement pad.

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]
[8]

637

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