SOLID MECHANICS II

BMCS 3333

STRESSES IN
THIN-WALLED PRESSURE VESSEL
Nadlene Razali
 Introduction

• Cylindrical or spherical vessels commonly used in industry to serve as

boilers or tanks.
• When under pressure, the material of vessel is subjected to a loading
from all direction.
• The vessel can be analyzed as thin wall or thick wall.
 Introduction

• Thin wall refers to a vessel having an inner-radius-to-wall-thickness ratio of 10 or

more .
ri
 10
Thin wall: t

ri
Thick wall:  10
t

• Few example of thin walled applications:

 Pressure pipes
 Aircraft fuselages
 Compressed gas container

• If the vessel wall is “thin”, the stress distribution throughout its

thickness will not vary significantly or can be assumed uniform or
constant.

• The pressure in the vessel is understood to be the gauge pressure or

the pressure above atmospheric pressure.
 Cylindrical Vessels
• For a closed cylinder with an internal pressure, there can be three direct
stresses acting upon it:
i) Longitudinal stress
ii) Hoop stress
iii) Radial stress

• Longitudinal stress (x-axis) : the cylinder resistance to stretching along

the axis.
• Hoop stress: the cylinder resistance to grow in diameter
• Radial stress : pressure compressing the wall cylinder
 Cylindrical Vessels

• Longitudinal stress and hoop stress are directly proportional to the

pressure and the ratio of diameter to thickness.

• However the radial stress is related to pressure alone.

• Because of this relationship to the geometry, the longitudinal stress

and hoop stress are considered far greater than radial stress.

• The radial stress in a thin cylinder is small enough and to be ignored

in basic analysis.
Cylindrical Vessels

• Consider a cylindrical vessel with

principal stresses
s1 = hoop stress
s2 = longitudinal stress

• From the force equilibrium,

s 1 2t x   p2r x   0
pr
s1 
t
 Cylindrical Vessels

• From the force equilibrium,

F 0
s 2 2 rt   p r 2   0
X

F
X 0
pr
s2 
2t
• We also noticed that,

s 1  2s 2
 Introduction

Example:
A pressure tank, 4.5 m length and 1.5 m outer diameter has a thickness of
9mm. If air pressure inside the tank is 580 kPa, determine:
i) Hoop stress
ii) Longitudinal stress

Solution:
 Thin Walled Pressure Vessels

Example:

The cylindrical portion of the compressed

air tank shown is fabricated of 8 mm plate
welded along a helix forming an angle  =
30 with the horizontal.

Knowing that, the allowable stress normal

to weld is 75 MPa, determine the largest
pressure can be applied in the tank.
 Thin Walled Pressure Vessels

Solution:
 Thin Walled Pressure Vessels
Example

The cylindrical tank AB has an 200mm diameter and a 8mm wall thickness.
Knowing that the pressure inside the tank is 4.2 MPa, determine the maximum
Normal stress and the maximum shearing stress at point K located on the top
of the tank.
Spherical Vessels

• Consider a spherical vessel of inner

radius r and wall thickness t,
containing a pressure p.
• For reason of symmetry, the stress
exerted on the element must be equal.

• From the force equilibrium,

SFx=0;

s2(2rt)-p(r2)=0
pr
s 2  s1 
2t
 Spherical Vessels
Example:
A spherical gas container made of steel has 6 m outer diameter and wall
thickness of 9 mm. Knowing that internal pressure is 500 kPa,
determine:
i) maximum normal stress
ii maximum shearing stress in the container
Solution:

Given that,