Analysis of thick-walled cylindrical pressure vessels under the effect of cyclic internal pressure and cyclic temperature

A problem common to the pressure vessels' designer is the evaluation of stresses due to the effect of both cyclic temperature and pressure. This paper presents a complete analysis of stresses within the wall of a cylindrical pressure vessel subjected to cyclic internal pressure and temperature. The time-dependent stress distribution is obtained using a numerical model on the basis of the forward finite difference technique. The influence of the working parameters, such as mean pressure and mean temperature, pressure and temperature amplitudes, diameter ratio, etc. on the effective Stress is studied. The relation between the mean stress and stress amplitude is obtained for different working conditions. The relation between the working parameters according to Soderberg criteria is presented. An approximate expression for the relation between the working parameters is introduced in a simple and direct form. The results of the approximate solution are found to fit well with the numerical findings. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.