Section VI.1

SECTION VI.1 MEMBRANE EQUATIONS OF EQUILIBRIUM FOR THIN-WALLED PRESSURE VESSELS

Pressure vessels are shell-type structures. Thin walled implies skin thickness is much less than the radius of curvature. The most common shapes used for pressure vessels are cylinders and spheres. Spherical pressure vessels are the most efficient. The skin is usually very thin, it cannot sopppurt any bending, only membrane stress. In these problems, the plane stress condition is assumed.

Unstiffened (Monocoque) Cylindrical Pressure Vessels

Hoop Stress

Axial Stress

Maximun Shear Stress

Unstiffened Spherical Pressure Vessels

Due to symmetry, the stresses exerted on all four faces of the element must be equal.

EXAMPLE PROBLEMS

Example 1 Membrane stress calculations in a cylindrical pressure vessel
Example 2 Design of a spherical pressure vessel
Example 3 Design of an idealized monocoque fuselage structure

To Section VI.2

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