CHAPTER 5

Thin Walled Pressure

Vessels
• Cylindrical or spherical vessels are commonly used in
industry to serve as boiler or tanks.
• When under pressure, material is subjected to a
loading from all direction.
• In general, thin wall refers to a vessel having an inner-
radius-to-wall-thickness ratio of 10 or 1/10 of the
radius of the container
• Under this condition, the stress in the wall may be
considered uniform.
Cylindrical Pressure Vessels
• Some examples of cylindrical pressure vessel:
i) compressed air tanks
ii) rocket motors
iii) fire extinguishers
iv) spray cans
v) pressurized pipes

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• Pressure vessels are used in a variety of applications in both
industry and the private sector. They appear in these
sectors as industrial compressed air receivers and domestic
hot water storage tanks.
• Other examples of pressure vessels are: diving cylinder,
recompression chamber, distillation towers, autoclaves and
many other vessels in mining or oil refineries and
petrochemical plants, nuclear reactor vessel, habitat of a
space ship, habitat of a submarine, pneumatic reservoir,
hydraulic reservoir under pressure, rail vehicle airbrake
reservoir, road vehicle airbrake reservoir and storage
vessels for liquified gases such as ammonia, chlorine,
propane, butane and LPG.
 Recompression chamber

A pressure tank a Pressure Vessel

connected to a used in industry
domestic hot water
system
• Cylindrical vessel with principal stresses
s1 = hoop stress
s2 = longitudinal stress

• Hoop stress:
 Fz  0  s 12t x   p2r x 
pr
s1 
t

• Longitudinal stress:
 
 Fx  0  s 2 2 rt   p  r
2

pr
s2 
2t
s 1  2s 2
• Points A and B correspond to hoop stress, s1,
and longitudinal stress, s2

• Maximum in-plane shearing stress:

1 pr
 max( in  plane )  s 2 
2 4t

• Maximum out-of-plane shearing stress

corresponds to a 45o rotation of the plane
stress element around a longitudinal axis
pr
 max  s 2 
2t
 Spherical Pressure Vessels
• a closed structure containing liquids or gases
under pressure
• Example of spherical pressure vessels:
• i) roof domes
• ii) boilers
• iii) airplane wings
• iv) submarine hulls
• A pressurized sphere is subjected to uniform
tensile stresses in all directions
• Spherical pressure vessel:
pr
s1  s 2 
2t

• Mohr’s circle for in-plane

transformations reduces to a point
s  s1  s 2  constant
 max(in -plane)  0

• Maximum out-of-plane shearing

stress
pr
 max  12 s1 
4t
 Example 1:
The cylindrical pressure vessel has an inner radius of 1.25 m and a
wall thickness of 15 mm. It is made from steel plates that are
welded along the 45 seam. Determine the normal and shear
stress components along this seam if the vessel is subjected to an
internal pressure of 8 MPa.
 pr 8(1.25)
s2    333.33M Pa
2 t 2(0.015)
s1  2s 2  666.67M Pa
A(333.33,0)
B(666.67,0)
C(500,0)
333.33  666.67
s avg   500M Pa
2
 x 'y '  R  666.67  500  167 M Pa
 Example 2:
• The cylindrical portion of the
compressed air tank shown is
fabricated of 6 mm thick plate
welded along a helix forming an
angle = 30º with the horizontal.
Knowing that the allowable stress
normal to the weld is 75 MPa,
determine
(a) the largest gage pressure that
can be used in the tank.
(b) the gage pressure that will
cause a shearing stress parallel
to the weld of 30 MPa.
Solution (a):
Solution (b):
 Example 3:
• The pressure tank shown has a 10 mm wall thickness
and butt-welded seams forming an angle  = 20º with a
transverse plane. For a gage pressure of 580 KPa
determine:
(a) the normal stress perpendicular to the weld,
(b) the shearing stress parallel to the weld.
Solution:
 Example 4:
The pressure tank shown has a 10 mm wall thickness
and butt-welded seams forming an angle  = 25º with
a transverse plane. Determine the largest allowable
gage pressure, knowing that the allowable normal
stress perpendicular to the weld is 120 MPa and the
allowable shearing stress parallel to the weld is 70
MPa.
Solution: