DEBRE-MARKOS UNIVERSITY

Institute of Technology
School of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering

MEng2082: Strength of Materials II

CHAPTER SIX

Thin and thick cylinders

Strength of materials II by Alemkere B. 1

 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.
• Provided that the ratio of thickness to inside diameter of the cylinder is less than 1/20, it is reasonably
accurate to assume that the hoop and longitudinal stresses are constant across the wall thickness and that
the magnitude of the radial stress set up is so small in comparison with the hoop and longitudinal stresses
that it can be neglected.
• This is obviously an approximation since, in practice, it will vary from zero at the outside surface to a
value equal to the internal pressure at the inside surface.
• For the purpose of the initial derivation of stress formulae it is also assumed that the ends of the cylinder
and any riveted joints present have no effect on the stresses produced; in practice they will have an effect
and this will be discussed later.
Hoop or circumferential stress
 This is the stress which is set up in resisting the bursting
effect of the applied pressure and can be most conveniently
treated by considering the equilibrium of half of the cylinder
Fig.1.
as shown in Fig.1.
fig.1 Half of a thin cylinder subjected to internal pressure showing the hoop and longitudinal stresses acting on any element in the cylinder surface.
Strength of materials II by Alemkere B. 2
Cont,,,
• Total force on half-cylinder owing to internal pressure = p x projected area =
p x dL
• Total resisting force owing to hoop stress on set up in the cylinder walls

Longitudinal stress
 Consider now the cylinder shown in Fig.2. Total force on the end of the cylinder owing to internal pressure

Fig.2

Strength of materials II by Alemkere B. 3

 spherical shell under internal pressure
• Because of the symmetry of the sphere the stresses set up owing to internal pressure will be two mutually
perpendicular hoop or circumferential stresses of equal value and a radial stress.
• As with thin cylinders having thickness to diameter ratios less than 1:20, the radial stress is assumed
negligible in comparison with the values of hoop stress set up.
• The stress system is therefore one of equal biaxial hoop stresses. Consider, therefore, the equilibrium of the
half-sphere shown in Fig.4. Force on half-sphere owing to internal pressure

Cylindrical vessel with hemispherical ends

Fig.4 Half of a thin sphere subjected
to internal pressure showing uniform
hoop stresses acting on a surface
element.
 Consider now the vessel shown in Fig.5 in which the wall thickness of the cylindrical and
hemispherical portions may be different (this is sometimes necessary since the hoop stress
in the cylinder is twice that in a sphere of the same radius and wall thickness).
 For the purpose of the calculation the internal diameter of both portions is assumed equal.
 From the preceding sections the following formulae are known to apply:
Strength of materials II by Alemkere B. 4
Cont,,,  For the hemispherical ends

 Thus equating the two strains in order that there shall be no

distortion of the junction,

Fig.5. Cross-section of a thin cylinder with hemispherical ends.

 For the cylindrical portion  With the normally accepted value of Poisson’s ratio for
general steel work of 0.3, the thickness ratio becomes
i.e. the thickness of the cylinder walls must be approximately 2.4 times
that of the hemispherical ends for no distortion of the junction to occur.
 For equal maximum stresses in the two portions the thickness of the
cylinder walls must be twice that in the ends but some distortion at the
junction will then occur.

Strength of materials II by Alemkere B. 5

Example 1 A thin cylinder 75mm internal diameter, 250mm long with walls 2.5mm thick is subjected to
an internal pressure of 7MN/m^2. Determine the If, in addition to the internal pressure, the cylinder is subjected
to a torque of 200N.m, find the magnitude and nature of the principal stresses set up in the cylinder. E = 200
GN/m^2. v = 0.3.
Solution;

In addition to these stresses a shear stress 5 is set up.

From the torsion theory,

Strength of materials II by Alemkere B. 6

Example 2 A cylinder has an internal diameter of 230mm, has walls 5mm thick and is 1m long. It is
m3 when filled with a liquid at a pressure p is 1.25mN/m^2. If E = 200GN/m2 and v = 0.25, and assuming rigid
end plates, determine:
(a) the values of hoop and longitudinal stresses;
(b) the modifications to these values if joint efficiencies of 45% (hoop) and 85%
(c) the necessary change in pressure p to produce a further increase in internal volume of (longitudinal) are
assumed; 15 %. The liquid may be assumed incompressible.
Solution

(b) Hoop stress, acting on the longitudinal joints

Longitudinal stress (acting on the circumferential joints)

(c) Since the change in volume is directly proportional to
the pressure, the necessary 15 %
increase in volume is achieved by increasing the pressure
also by 15 %

Strength of materials II by Alemkere B. 7

Example 3 To what value can the gas pressure be increased before failure occurs according to the
maximum principal stress theory of elastic failure? For the material of the sphere E = 200 GN/m^2, v = 0.3 and
the yield stress σy, in simple tension = 280 MN/m^2. Determine the pressure exerted by the gas on the walls of
the sphere.
Solution; The maximum stress set up in the sphere will be the hoop stress,

Strength of materials II by Alemkere B. 8

 Thick cylinders
Difference in treatment between thin and thick cylinders - basic assumptions
 The theoretical treatment of thin cylinders assumes that the hoop stress is constant across the thickness of the
cylinder wall (Fig.6), and also that there is no pressure gradient across the wall.
 Neither of these assumptions can be used for thick cylinders for which the variation of hoop and radial stresses
is shown in Fig.7, their values being given by the Lame equations:
 Development of the theory for thick cylinders is concerned with sections remote from the ends since
distribution of the stresses around the joints makes analysis at the ends particularly complex.

Fig.7. Thick cylinder subjected to internal pressure.

Fig.6. Thin cylinder subjected to internal pressure.
Strength of materials II by Alemkere B. 9
Cont,,,
• For central sections the applied pressure system which is normally applied to thick cylinders is symmetrical,
and all points on an annular element of the cylinder wall will be displaced by the same amount, this amount
depending on the radius of the element.
• Consequently there can be no shearing stress set up on transverse planes and stresses on such planes are
therefore principal stresses.
• Similarly, since the radial shape of the cylinder is maintained there are no shears on radial or tangential planes,
and again stresses on such planes are principal stresses.
• Thus, consideration of any element in the wall of a thick cylinder involves, in general, consideration of a
mutually perpendicular, tri-axial, principal stress system, the three stresses being termed radial, hoop
(tangential or circumferential) and longitudinal (axial) stresses.

Development of the Lam’s theory

 Consider the thick cylinder shown in Fig.8. The stresses acting on an element of unit length at radius rare as
shown in Fig.9, the radial stress increasing from σr to σr + dσr, over the element thickness dr (all stresses are
assumed tensile), For radial equilibrium of the element:

Strength of materials II by Alemkere B. 10

Cont,,,

Fig.8
For small angles: Fig.9
Therefore, neglecting second-order small quantities,

 Assuming now that plane sections remain plane, Le. the longitudinal strain ℇL is constant across the wall of the cylinder,

 It is also assumed that the longitudinal stress σL is constant across the cylinder walls at points remote from the ends.
Multiplying through by r and rearranging,
Substituting in for σH
Equation 1
Strength of materials II by Alemkere B. 11
Cont,,, Therefore, integrating,

from previous equation Equation 2

 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 cylinder - internal pressure only
 Consider now the thick cylinder shown in Fig.10 subjected to an internal pressure P, the external pressure being zero.
The two known conditions of stress which enable the Lame constants A and B to be determined are:

N.B. -The internal pressure is considered as a negative radial stress since it will produce a radial
compression (i.e. thinning) of the cylinder walls and the normal stress convention takes compression
as negative.
Substituting the above conditions in eqn. (2)

Fig. 10 Cylinder cross-section.

Strength of materials II by Alemkere B. 12

Cont,,,

 These equations yield the stress distributions indicated in

Fig. 7 with maximum values of both σr, and σH at the inside
radius.

Longitudinal stress
 Consider now the cross-section of a thick cylinder with closed ends subjected to an internal pressure P1 and an external
pressure P2 (Fig.11)
For horizontal equilibrium:

Equation 3
i.e. a constant.
 It can be shown that the constant has the same value as the constant A of the
Lame equations. This can be verified for the “internal pressure only” case of by
substituting P2 = 0 in the eqn. above. For combined internal and external
pressures, the relationship
Fig.11. Cylinder longitudinal section Strength of materials II by Alemkere B. 13
 Example 4 A thick cylinder of 100mm internal radius and 150mm external radius is subjected to an internal
pressure of 60MN/m^2 and an external pressure of 30MN/m^2. Determine the hoop and radial stresses at the
inside and outside of the cylinder together with the longitudinal stress if the cylinder is assumed to have closed
ends. Solution;  The internal and external pressures both have the effect of
decreasing the thickness of the cylinder; the radial stresses at
both the inside and outside radii are thus compressive, i.e.
negative

Therefore, from eqn.2, with stress units of MN/m^2,

Subtracting (2) from (l),

Therefore, at r = 0.1m, from eqn.

and at r = 0.15m,
From eqn. (3) the longitudinal stress is given by

Strength of materials II by Alemkere B. 14

 Example 2 An external pressure of 10MN/m^2 is applied to a thick cylinder of internal diameter 160mm
and external diameter 320mm. If the maximum hoop stress permitted on the inside wall of the cylinder is limited to
30 MN/m^2, what maximum internal pressure can be applied assuming the cylinder has closed ends?
Solution; The conditions for the cylinder are:

Solve it

since the maximum hoop stress occurs at the inside surface of the cylinder.
Using the latter two conditions in eqns.(2) with units of MN/m^2,
Therefore, at r = 0.08, from eqn.

i.e. the allowable internal pressure is 34 MN/m^2

Strength of materials II by Alemkere B. 15

questions
Part I short answer
1. Write number of stresses for cylinder under internal pressure.
2. Write the difference between thin and thick cylinder.
3. Drive hoop or circumferential stress and longitudinal stress.
4. What are the main difference thin cylinder and spherical shell under internal pressure.
5. What is the main reason for negligible condition of radial stress during thin cylinder.
6. Write equation hoop or circumferential strain for cylindrical vessel with hemispherical ends.
7. develop and write equations lames theory and also drive thick cylinder equations under internal pressure.
Part II workout
1. Determine the hoop and longitudinal stresses set up in a thin boiler shell of circular cross section, 5m long and of 1.3 m internal
diameter when the internal pressure reaches a value of 2.4 bar (240 kN/m^2). The wall thickness of the boiler is 25mm. E =
210GN/m^2; v = 0.3.
2. A thin-walled steel cylinder is subjected to an internal fluid pressure of 21 bar (2.1 MN/m^2). The boiler is of 1m inside
diameter and 3m long and has a wall thickness of 33 mm. Calculate the hoop and longitudinal stresses present in the cylinder
and determine what torque may be applied to the cylinder if the principal stress is limited to 150 MN/m^2. (Assignment)
3. A thick cylinder of 150mm inside diameter and 200mm outside diameter is subjected to an internal. Determine stresses
4. A cylinder of 100mm internal radius and 125mm external radius is subjected to an external pressure of 14bar (1.4 MN/m^2).
What will be the maximum stress set up in the cylinder? (Assignment)
5. The cylinder of Problem 2 is now subjected to an additional internal pressure of 200bar (20 MN/m^2). What will be the
value of the maximum stress? (Assignment)
Strength of materials II by Alemkere B. 16