FAILURE MODES OF PRESSURE-VESSEL COMPONENTS AND THEIR CONSIDERATION IN ANALYSES

Metallic pressure vessel components such as dished ends show different modes of failure depending upon the geometrical and loading condition s. These are mainly gross plastic deformation under static load, loss of stability (buckling), fatigue crack initiation at highly stressed l ocations under cyclic loading (especially in the low cycle regime), pr ogressive plastic deformation (ratcheting) and creep at high temperatu res. Existing codes are mostly used to determine necessary wall thickn ess (design by rule) based on the static load-carrying capacity. Guide lines for other failure modes are given in a more or less general way for complex structures. In this article it is shown that all the failu re modes mentioned can be estimated by carrying out linear and non-lin ear finite elements analyses. The possibility of using the finite elem ents method as a basis for design by rule and design by analysis is di scussed.