COMPLETE ANALYTIC ELASTIC STUDY OF A 90-DEGREES BRANCH CONNECTION OF A CYLINDER ON A SPHERE SUBJECTED TO A BENDING LOAD

This paper proposes a complete analytic formulation for the elastic me chanical calculation of a 90 degrees branch connection of a cylinder o n a sphere under a bending load. It is validated and simplified by com parison with shell-type finite element calculations in Fourier mode us ing the CEA's Castem 2000 code. The general calculations of the cylind er were obtained by minimisation of the deformation energy. The sphere study was conducted without particular consideration to Donnell-Vlaso v's shallow shell theory. The mathematical analysis is based on the cl assical system which couples the radial displacement and a stress func tion. Solutions are provided in complex Legendre functions. An algorit hm is presented to facilitate their calculation. Lastly, well chosen c ontinuity conditions on the cylinder and the sphere provide an easily solvable system. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.