Duan 2014

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2014–12:53pm] [1–10]
//blrnas3/cenpro/ApplicationFiles/Journals/SAGE/3B2/PIEJ/Vol00000/140037/APPFile/SG-PIEJ140037.3d (PIE) [PREPRINTER stage]
Original Article
Proc IMechE Part E:

J Process Mechanical Engineering
Design and analysis of a large horizontal 0(0) 1–10
! IMechE 2014
vessel supported on multiple saddles Reprints and permissions:
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according to three-moment theorem DOI: 10.1177/0954408914547788

uk.sagepub.com/jpme
and Zick’s method
Cheng-Hong Duan and You-Liang Hu
Abstract
For the engineering design of large horizontal vessels with uneven multiple saddles, no clear specifications are given in
design codes, especially with uneven settlements. In this paper, an analytical method based on three-moment theorem
with settlements is introduced to evaluate the shear forces and bending moments at some critical cross-sections of a
large horizontal pressure vessel supported on 10 saddles with uneven settlements. Zick’s stress analysis method for
a horizontal vessel supported on two saddles is extended to the multiple saddle arrangements. It is found that as a result
of varied cross-section and uneven saddle supports, the shear forces and bending moments are different at different
saddle sections. Finite element calculations are also performed to prove the analytical solutions. Results show that for
the vessel without settlements, the bending moments and reactions obtained by the three-moment equation method are
slightly larger than those obtained by finite element method. Non-uniform deformation of the vessel at different saddles
may be contributed to the differences of the two results. For the vessel with settlements, the bending moments and
reactions at some saddles obtained by the three-moment equation method are quite larger than those obtained by finite
element method. But if the actual axis settlement of the vessel is applied to the three-moment equation method, the two
results are close to each other. Experiments are also carried out to verify the reliability of the proposed method.
Keywords
Multiple saddle, settlement, three-moment theorem, Zick’s method, horizontal vessel
Date received: 23 January 2014; accepted: 25 July 2014
Introduction vessels supported on multiple saddles under uniform

In engineering, most horizontal vessels are supported loadings. However, this method is only applicable to
on two saddles, but with the larger and larger process the vessels with uniform cross-sections and uniformly
equipment being used and development of construc- loaded saddles without settlements.
tion technology of pressure vessels, large horizontal Zick4,5 proposed the semi-empirical design method
vessels with multiple saddles are more and more fre- in 1951, which simplified a horizontal pressure vessel
quently applied. supported on two saddles as a simply supported over-
For the design of horizontal pressure vessels, hanging beam subjected to a uniformly distributed
although many codes and researchers such as load. Since it was first published, Zick’s analysis has
ASME B&PV Code Section VIII Division 21 and been proved to be a very effective method in evaluat-
Megyesy2 recognize the advantages of multiple ing stresses in horizontal pressure vessels under two
saddle supports, no specific engineering design meth-
ods are provided. EN13445 code Section III Division
16.8 is the only code providing the design method of College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Beijing University of
horizontal pressure vessels supported on multiple sad- Chemical Technology, Beijing, China
dles.3 The code proposes a methodology for the cal-
Corresponding author:
culation of bending moment and shearing force in the Cheng-Hong Duan, Beijing University of Chemical Technology,
saddles region as well as equations for the strength 15 BeiSanhuan East Road, ChaoYang District, Beijing 100029, China.
and stability assessment of the horizontal pressure Email: duanchenghong@163.com
Downloaded from pie.sagepub.com at MICHIGAN STATE UNIV LIBRARIES on June 15, 2015
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2 Proc IMechE Part E: J Process Mechanical Engineering 0(0)
saddles and thus is the basis of the saddle design It is supposed that all saddles are at the same level
guidelines given in pressure vessel design handbooks; without any settlements. Generally, a multi-support
see, for example, Megyesy.2 Tooth and coworkers6–8 statically indeterminate beam can be simplified as a
and Sang et al.9 also studied the saddle design, and statically determinate beam with simple supports at
their contributions have been incorporated in the two ends. Those intermediate supports are redundant
British Standard PD 5500.10 A large horizontal pres- constrains, and the number of them is equal to the
sure vessel supported on multiple saddles can be number of redundant constrains, which is called the
regarded as a statically indeterminate beam. Bending degree of redundancy.11
moments and reactions of each saddle can be calcu- According to Figure 3 and mechanics of materials,
lated using the three-moment theorem, and the stress the total angle of rotation in the left side is equal
of cylinder near and between saddles and the stress at to the 1 in the right side at the saddle n, i.e.,
saddles can be evaluated by Zick’s method. ’nL ¼ ’nR. The equations are
Mn1 ln1 Mn ln1 1 xn1

’nL ¼ þ þ !n1 ð1Þ
Design method and procedures 6EIn1 3EIn1 EIn1 ln1
Mechanical model Mn ln Mnþ1 ln 1 yn
’nR ¼ !n ð2Þ
In general, the main loads of a horizontal vessel are 3EIn 6EIn EIn ln
pressure, hydrostatic pressure and own weight. It is
required to consider the hydrostatic test in mechanical From the condition of continuity it follows that
design. ’nL ¼ ’nR, we obtain
A horizontal vessel supported on multiple saddles
is shown in Figure 1. It can be considered as a simple ln1 ln1 ln ln
Mn1 þ 2Mn þ þ Mnþ1
beam with length L supported on multiple saddles In1 In1 In In
with two overhangs. As the heads are not included 6!n1 xn1 6!n yn
in the model, the load caused by weight of the head ¼ ð3Þ
In1 ln1 In l n
and the water in the head can be simplified as a force
and a moment acting on two ends of the beam, as If it is a prismatic beam, equation (3) can be
shown in Figure 2. simplified as
Solution to the problem of the simple beam over Mn1 ln1 þ 2Mn ðln1 þ ln Þ þ Mnþ1 ln
multiple saddles 6!n1 xn1 !n yn
¼ ð4Þ
ln1 ln
Three-moment equation. A multi-support statically
indeterminate beam is shown in Figure 3, and the The values to be solved in equation (4) are three
saddles were marked with 1, 2,. . . from left to right. moments, so it is called the three-moment equation.
Bending moments and reactions at the saddles. According

to the three-moment equation, the moment of saddle
n of a continuous beam has the following relationship
for the above mechanical model
Mn1 ln1 þ 2Mn ðln1 þ ln Þ þ Mnþ1 ln

wl3n1 wl3n
¼ ð5Þ
4 4
Figure 1. Illustration of the structure of a horizontal vessel
supported on multiple saddles.
Figure 3. Statically independent structure of a simple beam

Figure 2. Cylindrical shell simulated as beam over supports. over multiple saddles.
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Duan and Hu 3
Therefore, a set of equations can be listed for all of The three-moment equations in the case of saddle
the intermediate saddles 2–m1 uneven settlements will be obtained by revising three-
moment equation without settlements in this paper.
9
wl31 wl32 >
>
A design example is given by using the three-
M1 l1 þ 2M2 ðl1 þ l2 Þ þ M3 l2 ¼ >
> moment equations, and the results will be compared
4 4 >
>
...... = with the finite element analysis (FEA) results.
ð6Þ Suppose the saddles have uneven settlements as
Mm2 lm2 þ 2Mm1 ðlm2 þ lm1 Þ þ Mm lm1 >
>
>
> shown in Figure 4. Let n1 and n denote the right
wl3m2 wl3m1 >
>
¼ ; angles of inclination to the horizontal of the straight
4 4
lines connecting the points of supports in the nth and
where (n þ 1)th spans. Assume that the angle is positive
when the right support is lower to the left support.
2 1
M1 ¼ Mm ¼M00 bwl0 wl20 ð7Þ According to equations (1) and (2) the ’n between the
3 2 tangent at n and the horizontal line will be, for the
The total number of equations is m2 and M2, span n
M3,. . ., Mm1 could be solved.
Mn1 ln1 Mn ln1 1 xn1
According to the general formula of reactions at ’nL ¼ þ þ !n1 n1
the saddles of a continuous beam, F1, F2,. . ., Fm can 6EIn1 3EIn1 EIn1 ln1
be obtained. With the loads on the beam given, the ð8Þ
shear force and bending moment equations of each Mn ln Mnþ1 ln 1 yn
’nR ¼ ! n n ð9Þ
cylindrical part can be listed, and thus the shear and 3EIn 6EIn EIn ln
bending moment diagrams can be drawn.
From the condition of continuity it follows that

Stress calculation and assessment ’nL ¼ ’nR, and we obtain
With the calculated reaction and moment of each
saddle, Zick’s method is applied to evaluate the stress ln1 ln1 ln ln
Mn1 þ 2Mn þ þ Mnþ1
at some critical cross-sections of the vessel. Some rep- In1 In1 In In
resentative standards and codes based on Zick’s ð10Þ
6!n1 xn1 6!n yn
method of two saddle supports, such as PD55007 and ¼ 6Eðn n1 Þ
In1 ln1 In l n
ASME VIII-21 can be used as a reference of subsequent
stress calculations. For side saddle, the strengthening If it is a prismatic beam, equation (3) can be sim-
effect of head can be considered. plified as
Mn1 ln1 þ 2Mn ðln1 þ ln Þ þ Mnþ1 ln

Settlement analysis
6!n1 xn1 6!n yn ð11Þ
In many cases, foundations of the horizontal vessel ¼ 6EIðn n1 Þ
ln1 ln
supported on multiple saddles are independent of
each other, and may not bear the same load so that For the abovementioned mechanical model, it can
uneven settlements often occur. Therefore, in general, be further simplified as
all saddles are not on the same level and additional
bending moment and reaction on the cylindrical shell Mn1 ln1 þ 2Mn ðln1 þ ln Þ þ Mnþ1 ln
are generated. wln1 wln ð12Þ
Uncertainties of the foundation settlements bring ¼ 6EIðn n1 Þ
4 4
much inconvenience in design of the horizontal pres-
sure vessels with multiple saddles. To facilitate engin- Equations (10), (11), and (12) are called three-
eering design, many designers prefer to introduce a moment equations with settlements.
safety factor to the obtained moment and the reaction
of each saddle was evaluated by using three-moment
equations. The safety factor is generally taken as 1.2 to
1.4. However, sometimes this practice is too conserva-
tive and results in a too thicker vessel. Therefore, a
more scientific approach is needed to obtain accurate
bending moment and reaction at each saddle based on
possible settlements of the vessel before stress assess-
ment. Stefanovic and Noman12 and Popa and
Sovarel13 made progress in the calculation of multiple
saddles with settlements and achieved certain results by
amending three-moment equation without settlements. Figure 4. Supports model on different levels.
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Load parameters of each cylindrical part are listed

Illustrative design example in Table 2. The length of first cylindrical part is
A large-scale horizontal pressure vessel supported on 11,700 mm, the second to sixth is 8500 mm, the sev-
10 saddles is analyzed, which is a 91,250 mm long enth, eighth, ninth, and 10th are 13,355 mm, 6300 mm,
evaporator with 10 fixed tube sheets distributed 6395 mm, and 11,000 mm, respectively. The concen-
along the axis of the vessel. It is divided into 10 trated forces representing the weight of tube sheets
parts by tube sheets and each part of the vessel con- are all 500,000 N in cylindrical part 1–7, and
ducts one period of evaporation. Ten saddles support- 175,000 N in the last three cylindrical parts.
ing the vessel are not uniformly distributed. The There are 10 saddles of the vessel, so it is eight
seventh one is a fixed support and the others are slid- statically indeterminate problem. The longitudinal
ing ones, and a conical reducer is used to connect the bending moment at the first saddle M1 can be calcu-
part 7 and part 8. The first seven parts of the evapor- lated directly, M1 ¼ 1.878 Eþ10 N mm. Similarly,
ator are 8500 mm in inner diameter and 14 mm in M10 ¼ 5.891 Eþ09 N mm.
wall thickness. The last three parts’ diameter is According to the three-moment equation, i.e.,
7000 mm and wall thickness is 12 mm. The vessel equation (3), the formulas for saddles two to nine
is made up of stainless steel and so no corrosion are written as
allowance is considered. Tube sheets are set on both 9
sides of every saddle, and there are pipe bundles l1 l1 l2 l2 6!1 x1 6!2 y2 >
M1 þ 2M2 þ þ M3 ¼ >
>
arranged among tube sheets. On the outside wall of I1 I1 I2 I2 l1 I1 l2 I2 > =
the vessel, stiffening rings are installed to enhance its ......
>
strength and rigidity. The vessel’s structure and saddle l8 l8 l9 l9 6!8 x8 6!9 y9 > >
>
arrangements are shown in Figure 5. M8 þ 2M9 þ þ M10 ¼ ;
I8 I8 I9 I9 l 8 I8 l 9 I9
ð13Þ
Basic parameters
The basic parameters of the vessel are listed in
Table 1.
Table 1. Basic parameters.
Working pressure Pw/MPa 0.096

Load case
Design pressure Pd/MPa 0.1
The evaporator undergoes different load cases. But it Medium density /kg/m3 1025
is found that the hydrostatic test is the most danger- Inside diameter of cylindrical part 1–7 of 8500
ous load case. So in this paper, only the hydrostatic vessel DiF/mm
test case is taken into account. In this case, the vessel Inside diameter of cylindrical part 8–10 of 7000
is filled with water, but there is no other additional vessel DiT/mm
pressure except for hydrostatic pressure. Hydrostatic Distance from first saddle support to adjacent 7500
pressure, the vessel and insulating layer’s weight are end of cylindrical part AF/mm
included in this case. Wind load, earthquake load, Distance from last saddle support to adjacent 5300
heat expansion and are not considered. end of cylindrical part AT/mm
Length of cylindrical part of vessel L/mm 91,250
Analytical solutions without settlements Inertia moment of cylindrical part 1–7 of 1.69 Eþ12
vessel I1 , I2 ,. . . I7/mm4
The vessel’s mechanical model of the hydrostatic case Inertia moment of cylindrical part 8–10 of 8.10 Eþ11
is shown in Figure 6(a) (when settlements do not vessel I8 , I9 ,I10/mm4
occur).
Figure 5. Large horizontal vessel supported on multiple saddles.

S: sliding support; F: fixed support.
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Duan and Hu 5
Figure 6. Load distribution of the large horizontal vessel supported on multiple saddles.
4250, 4250, 4250, 4250, 4250, 5847.12, 3225,

Table 2. Load parameters of each cylindrical part. 4715.11, unit: mm. !1–!9 are, respectively, 4.210 E þ
13, 4.210 E þ 13, 4.210 E þ 13, 4.210 E þ 13, 4.210 E þ
Length of first cylindrical part of vessel l1/mm 11,700
13, 4.210 E þ 13, 9.646 E þ 13, 1.188 E þ 13, 3.545 E þ
Weight of first vessel end Whead/N 174,000 13, unit: mm2.
Concentrated force in first cylindrical part 500,000 By solving these linear equations, the value of
from tube and tube bundles WF1/N M2–M9 are obtained, and then reactions F1–F10 at
Equivalent moment from first end to the end 2.626 Eþ9 each saddle can be evaluated, too. All solutions are
tangent MF00 /N mm listed in Table 3.
Average load of cylindrical part 1–7 of vessel 652 According to the obtained bending moments and
per millimeter length/N/mm reactions, the shear force diagram and bending
Average load of cylindrical part 8–10 of vessel 453 moment diagram are plotted as shown in Figure 6
per millimeter length/N/mm (b) and (c). It is seen from Figure 6 that the shear
Length of tenth cylindrical part of vessel l10/mm 11,000 force and moment at each saddle are larger than
Weight of last vessel end Whead/N 116,200 those at other locations. Both the maximum shear
Concentrated force in first cylindrical part 175,000 force and the maximum moment occur at the first
from tube and tube bundles WF10/N saddle. So the following stress analysis will focus on
Equivalent moment from last end to the end 1.208 Eþ9 the first saddle.
tangent MT00 /N mm
Analytical solutions with settlements

where x1–x8, y2–y9 and !1–!9 can be calculated In engineering design, the allowable settlement for
according to mechanics of materials. x1–x8 are, a horizontal pressure vessel is limited. According to
respectively, 4250, 4250, 4250, 4250, 4250, 4250, the settlement parameters of this vessel, take
5752.88, 3225, unit: mm. y2–y9 are, respectively, ¼ 5 mm. Practically, settlement could occur at
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each saddle and the settlements could be different for In the same manner, the third and fifth saddle’s
different saddles. As an example in this study, suppose three-moment equations also need to be revised
only one saddle settles while the rest have no according to equation (10)
settlements.
Because the seventh saddle is fixed and the diam- l2 l2 l3 l3
M2 þ 2M3 þ þ M4
eters and loads of the cylindrical parts 1–7 are larger, I2 I2 I3 I3
only the first seven saddles’ bending moments and ð15Þ
6!2 x2 6!3 y3
reactions are calculated when their settlements occur. ¼ 6E
l 2 I2 l 3 I3 l3
Assuming that the fourth saddle’s settlement is
and the saddles around it have no settlements, its
l4 l4 l5 l5
three-moment equation needs to be revised according M4 þ 2M5 þ þ M6
I4 I4 I5 I5
to the three-moment equation with settlements in ð16Þ
6!4 x4 6!5 y5
equation (10) as follows ¼ 6E
l 4 I4 l 5 I5 l4

l3 l3 l4 l4
M3 þ 2M4 þ þ M5 Solve the revised three-moment equations to
I3 I3 I4 I4
ð14Þ obtain the values of M2–M9, and then obtain the reac-
6!3 x3 6!4 y4 tions at each saddle F1–F10. Thus, the variation curves
¼ þ 6E þ
l3 I3 l4 I4 l4 l3 of bending moment and reaction at each saddle can be
plotted when one of 1–7 saddles settles. In order to
express clearly, still take the fourth saddle’s settlement
as an example. Because the fourth saddle’s settlement
has nearly no impact on saddles 8–10, only the first
seven saddles’ variation curves of bending moments
and reactions are plotted, as shown in Figure 7, where
Table 3. Longitudinal bending moment and reaction in ‘‘No settlement’’ curve indicates the solution of the
horizontal vessel at each support. three-moment equation without settlements. The fig-
Bending Value/ Value/ ures only show the data at each saddle and each data
moment 109 N mm Reaction 106 N point is connected with straight lines to show the rela-
tive value of each saddle’s load. The explanation of
M1 18.78 F1 10.42 Figure 7 will be given in FEA with settlements section.
M2 6.28 F2 5.35
M3 4.61 F3 6.38
M4 4.98 F4 6.64 Finite element analysis (FEA)
M5 5.17 F5 6.77
FEA without settlements
M6 4.06 F6 5.99
M7 8.29 F7 8.39 To verify the feasibility and accuracy of the above
M8 4.32 F8 5.54 analytical method, FEA of the vessel was performed
M9 3.61 F9 3.71 by ANSYS 14.0. Shell and link element were used to
M10 5.89 F10 5.27
create the model. According to the symmetry, half
model was set to evaluate the reactions and bending
(a) (b)
Figure 7. Variation curves of (a) bending moments and (b) reactions at saddle of 1–7 saddles when the fourth saddle settles with
by three-moment equation with settlement method.
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Duan and Hu 7
(a) (b)
Figure 8. Figures of (a) bending moment and (b) reaction distribution at saddles.
FEA: finite element analysis.
moments. The loads were applied by surface element, saddle (suppose the fourth one) settles. Figure 7 com-
the seventh saddle was fixed and the others can move pares the results at saddles 1–7 with and without
axially. The reaction and bending moment at each settlements. Clearly, with settlement, additional bend-
saddle are extracted. The two results are compared ing moments and reactions are induced especially at
as shown in Figure 8. the saddle having the settlement.
It is seen from Figure 8 that the bending moments When settlements occur, in order to verify the
and reactions obtained by three-moment equation feasibility and accuracy of the method of three-
method and FEA vary in the same tendency. The moment equation with settlements in calculating
values in the first and seventh cylindrical part are moment and reaction, extract all saddles’ moments
greater than other cylindrical parts and the maximum and reactions when one of 1–7 saddles settles in
ones are in the first part. The similar results show that FEA results and plot their variation curves, corres-
applying the three-moment equation method to calcu- ponding to the settlement calculation in Analytical
late the bending moments and reactions is reliable. solutions with settlements section. Because the
It is also found that the results obtained by the fourth saddle’s settlement has nearly no impact on
three-moment equation method are slightly larger saddles 8–10, only the first seven saddles’ variation
than the finite element method (FEM) results. For curves of bending moments and reactions are
example, the reaction obtained with the analytical plotted, as shown in Figure 9, where ‘‘No settle-
method at the first saddle is 1.13 times of the FEA ment’’ curve indicates the solution of the FEA with-
and the bending moment is 1.13 times. For the sev- out settlement. The figures only show the data at
enth saddle, the reaction obtained with the analytical each saddle and each data point is connected with
method is 1.21 times of FEA and the bending straight lines to show the relative value of each sad-
moments is 1.19 times. So if the FEM results are con- dle’s load.
sidered to be closer to real situation, the method by Figure 10 compares the results of three-moment
applying three-moment equation is more conservative equation with FEA results when the fourth saddle
in engineering applications. settles with ; it is seen for some saddles both
The difference between the results of two methods bending moments and reactions obtained by two
may be explained by the vessel’s deformation or settle- methods are quite different. What is the reason? It
ment. For the FEA without settlements, the bottom may be explained as follows. For three-moment
of vessel or all the saddles are at a same level, but the equation method, the deformation of the vessel is
vessel axis is not so because of the vessel deformation not considered and the settlement of the vessel is
under uneven loads, or in other words, the vessel is the axis settlement of the vessel. But for FEA, how-
actually settled and the saddles will have a settlement ever, the deformation of the vessel occurs, and thus
0 which will yield additional reactions or bending the axis settlement vessel (denoted by 0 ) is not the
moments. These settlements cannot be considered in same as the saddle settlement. In other words, the
the three-moment equation method. actual axis settlement is changed if the vessel
deformation is considered as illustrated in
Figure 11. To quantitatively prove this argument,
FEA with settlements the settlements 0 of vessel axis are extracted
Like the analytical solutions, by applying FEA, both from FEA results as listed in Table 4. Then the
bending moments and reactions can be obtained if a settlement 0 at the fourth saddle is applied to
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(a) (b)
Figure 9. Figures of (a) bending moments and (b) reactions at saddles 1–7 when the fourth saddle settles with by FEA method.
(a) (b)
Figure 10. Comparison of (a) bending moments and (b) reactions at saddles 1–7 obtained from the two methods when the fourth
saddle settles with .
Figure 11. Variation of saddles’ settlement.
three-moment equations to calculate the bending

Table 4. Settlements 0 of vessel axis obtained from FEA moments and reactions at each saddle. The results
when one of 1–7 saddles settles. are shown in Figure 12. It is seen now the bending
moments and reactions obtained by the three-
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
moment equation method are quite close to those
0 n 5.1 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.8 obtained by FEA. It means that if the actual axis
0 nþ1 1.9 1.8 1.8 1.8 1.8 1.8 2.0 settlement of the vessel is applied, three-moment
0 n þ 2 0.8 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.1 equation method is reliable to solve the bending
moments and reactions of the vessel and thus to
design the vessel.
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Duan and Hu 9
(a) (b)
Figure 12. Figures of (a) bending moments and (b) reactions at saddles 1–7 when the fourth saddle settles with 0 by three-moment
equation method.
moment and reaction at each saddle are obtained by

three-moment theorem, and stress calculations are
carried out according to Zick’s method of a horizontal
vessel supported on two saddles. An engineering
example is given to illustrate the calculation process.
The main conclusions are drawn as follows:
1. For the vessel without settlements, the bending

moments and reactions obtained by three-
moment equation method are slightly larger than
those obtained by FEM. Non-uniform deform-
ation of the vessel at different saddles may be con-
tributed to the differences of the two results.
2. For the vessel with settlements, the bending
moments and reactions at some saddles obtained
by three-moment equation method are quite larger
Figure 13. Hydrostatic test of the evaporation. than those obtained by FEM. But if the actual axis
settlement of the vessel is applied to the three-
moment equation method, the two results are
close to each other.
Experimental verification
3. If a saddle settles with allowable settlement in
In order to verify the reliability of the calculation engineering, the bending moments and reactions
results, hydrostatic test of the large horizontal vessel at the saddle and the adjacent two saddles of
supported on multiple saddles is conducted. The both sides have been changed, but the rest saddles
hydrostatic test set-up is shown in Figure 13. are almost unaffected.
In the experiment, the vessel is full of water and the 4. The study in this paper shows that the method
total weight is about 6000 tons. Moreover, the max- based on three-moment theorem and Zick’s
imum measured settlement is 2.8 mm, less than the method can be extended to horizontal vessel with
maximum allowable settlement ¼ 5 mm. During multiple saddles and uneven settlements. It is sug-
the test, the overall structure is safe without obvious gested that more studies on the above method
deformations and damages of the cylinder shell and should be carried out in order to propose corres-
saddles. The successful hydrostatic test implies that ponding standard or guidelines for the design of
the method described in this paper to design and ana- vessels supported on multiple saddles.
lyze a large horizontal vessel supported on multiple
saddles is reliable.
Funding
This research received no specific grant from any funding
Conclusions agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
In this paper, a general stress calculation method of a
Conflict of interest
large horizontal vessel supported in multiple saddles
with uneven settlements is proposed. Bending None declared.
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References AT distance from last saddle support to

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In inertia moment of cylindrical part n of
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experiment. J Strain Anal 1982; 17: 169–176. end tangent (N mm)
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J Strain Anal 1982; 17: 187–198. Pm internal pressure (N/mm2)
8. Duthie G, White GC and Tooth AS. An analysis for
w average weight of horizontal vessel per
cylindrical vessels under local loading - application to
millimeter length (N/mm)
saddle supported vessel problems. J Strain Anal 1982;
17: 157–167. wn average load of cylindrical part n of
9. Sang ZF, Natarajan R and Widera GEO. On the design vessel per millimeter length (N/mm)
of horizontal pressure vessels. J Press Vessel Technol WFn concentrated force in cylindrical part n
1988; 110: 393–401. from tube and tube bundles (N)
10. British Standards Institution. Specification for unfired Whead weight of vessel end (N)
fusion welded pressure vessels, PD 5500. BSI, 2009. xn horizontal distances of the centroid of
11. Timoshenko S. Strength of materials. 2nd ed. the moment area !n from the support
New York: D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc., 1940. n1 (mm)
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buried liquid petroleum gas storage bullets supported the moment area !n from the support n
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Appendix
included angle of saddle support
Notation (degrees)
!n area of bending moment diagram for
AF distance from first saddle support to
span ln (mm2)
adjacent end of cylindrical part (mm)

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Proc IMechE Part E:

according to three-moment theorem DOI: 10.1177/0954408914547788

and Zick’s method

Cheng-Hong Duan and You-Liang Hu

Date received: 23 January 2014; accepted: 25 July 2014

Introduction vessels supported on multiple saddles under uniform

2 Proc IMechE Part E: J Process Mechanical Engineering 0(0)

Mn1 ln1 Mn ln1 1 xn1

Bending moments and reactions at the saddles. According

Mn1 ln1 þ 2Mn ðln1 þ ln Þ þ Mnþ1 ln

Figure 3. Statically independent structure of a simple beam

From the condition of continuity it follows that

Mn1 ln1 þ 2Mn ðln1 þ ln Þ þ Mnþ1 ln

4 Proc IMechE Part E: J Process Mechanical Engineering 0(0)

Load parameters of each cylindrical part are listed

Working pressure Pw/MPa 0.096

Figure 5. Large horizontal vessel supported on multiple saddles.

4250, 4250, 4250, 4250, 4250, 5847.12, 3225,

Analytical solutions with settlements

6 Proc IMechE Part E: J Process Mechanical Engineering 0(0)

8 Proc IMechE Part E: J Process Mechanical Engineering 0(0)

Figure 11. Variation of saddles’ settlement.

three-moment equations to calculate the bending

moment and reaction at each saddle are obtained by

1. For the vessel without settlements, the bending

10 Proc IMechE Part E: J Process Mechanical Engineering 0(0)

References AT distance from last saddle support to

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