Cylinders and

Pressure Vessels
P.K. Kankar

Cylinders and Pressure Vessels

http://www.hason-steel.com/en/main-nav/accomplishments/projects/processequipment-and-pressure-vessel/

Pressure Vessel Failure

http://www.twi-global.com/technical-knowledge/published-papers/validating-the
integrity-for-re-use-of-a-land-pipeline
/

Pressure Vessel Failure

http://pressurevesseltech.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/article.aspx?

Cylinders and Pressure Vessels

Cylinders or pressure vessels are used to

store fluids e.g. boiler shells, pipes, tubes etc.

Thin (Di/t >15)
Thick (Di/t<=15 )

Cylinders and Pressure Vessels

Pressure vessels are very often
spherical (e.g. LPG storage tanks)
cylindrical (e.g. liquid storage tanks)
cylindrical shells with hemispherical ends (e.g.

distillation columns)

Thin cylinders under internal

pressure
When a thin-walled cylinder is subjected to

internal

pressure,

three

mutually

perpendicular principal stresses will be set up

in

the

cylinder

material,

namely

the

circumferential or hoop stress, the radial

stress and the longitudinal stress.

Thin cylinders under internal

pressure

http://six.cheng.cam.ac.uk/wiki/images/2/2b/SAPV.pdf

Thin cylinders under internal

pressure

Circumferential or hoop stress

Total force on half-cylinder owing to internal

pressure = p x projected area = p x dL

Total resisting force owing to hoop stress set
up in the cylinder walls

Longitudinal stress
Total force on the

end of the cylinder

owing to internal
pressure

Thin cylinders under internal

pressure
For thin cylinders, it is reasonably accurate to

assume

that

stresses

are

the

hoop

constant

and
across

longitudinal
the

wall

thickness and
The magnitude of the radial stress set up is so

small in comparison with the hoop and

longitudinal stresses that it can be neglected.

Thin cylinders under internal

pressure

Thin Spherical Vessels

Thick Cylinders
The

theoretical

treatment of thin

cylinders

assumes that the hoop stress is constant across

the thickness of the cylinder wall, and also that
there is no pressure gradient across the wall.
Neither of these assumptions can

thick cylinders

be used

for

Thick Cylinders
Consider
the thick cylinder shown in Fig. The

stresses acting on an element of unit length

at radius

rare as shown in

Fig., the radial

stress increasing from , to + , over the

element thickness dr (all stresses are assumed
tensile).

Thick Cylinders
For radial equilibrium of the element:

Thick Cylinders
Assuming now

that

plane sections remain

plane, i.e. the longitudinal strain is constant

across the wall of the cylinder,

Thick Cylinders
It

is

also

assumed

that

the longitudinal

stress is constant across the cylinder walls

at points remote from the ends.

Thick Cylinders
Multiplying through by r and rearranging,

Thick Cylinders
The above equations yield the radial and hoop

stresses at any radius r in terms of constants A

and B. For any pressure condition there will
always be two known conditions of stress (usually
radial

stress) which enable the constants

to be

determined and the required stresses evaluated.

Thick Cylinders - internal pressure

only

Longitudinal stress

A steel tank for shipping gas is to have an inside

diameter of 200 mm and a length of 0.10 m. The
gas pressure is 10.5 N/mm2. The permissible
stress
is
to
be
56
N/mm2
Determine the required wall thickness, using the
thin cylinder equation.
A cast iron pipe is to deliver water at the rate of
125 m3 per minute and the velocity is 0.5 m/s.
The maximum pressure in the pipe is 0.875
N/mm2 The permissible stress in the C.I. is 21
N/mm2.
Determine the pipe diameter and the wall
thickness.

LAME'S EQUATION
When the material of the cylinder is brittle, such as
cast iron or cast steel, Lame's equation is used to
determine the wall thickness.
It is based on the maximum principal stress theory
of failure, where maximum principal stress is
equated to permissible stress for the material.

LAME'S EQUATION

LAME'S EQUATION

CLAVARINO'S AND BIRNIE'S

EQUATION
When material of the cylinder is ductile,
such as mild steel or alloy steel, maximum
strain theory of failure is used

CLAVARINO'S EQUATION

CLAVARINO'S AND BIRNIE'S

EQUATION
When the cylinder is open

BIRNIE'S EQUATION

Thick Cylinders

COMPOUND CYLINDER

COMPOUND CYLINDER
The method of solution for compound
cylinders constructed from similar materials
is to break the problem down into three
separate effects:
(a) shrinkage pressure only on the inside
cylinder;
(b) shrinkage pressure only on the outside
cylinder;
(c) internal pressure only on the complete
cylinder.

COMPOUND CYLINDER
For

each of the resulting load conditions there are

two known values of radial stress which enable the
Lames constants to be determined in each case i.e.
condition
(a) shrinkage-internal cylinder:
(b) shrinkage-external cylinder:
(c) internal pressure-compound cylinder:

COMPOUND CYLINDER

Distribution of hoop and radial stresses

through the walls of a compound cylinder

=increase in inner diameter of jacket

= decrease in outer diameter of cylinder
The tangential strain for the jacket is given

by,

Now assuming open ends, i.e. The tangential

strain for the cylinder is given by,

The shrinkage pressure P can be evaluated from the above

equation for a given amount of interference (). The resultant
stresses in a compound cylinder are found by superimposing the
two stresses-stresses due to shrink fit and those due to internal
pressure.