Investigation About Stress Intensity and Load Confrontation of Axially Cracked ASME Based Pressure Vessel

Abstract

The objective of this work is to find out the stress intensity and load confrontation of the axially cracked ASME pressure vessels so that the condition of the vessel will be branded how much more the life of the vessel wall would come if the crack is generated during operating conditions. The background of this work is based on the failures often occurring in the oil, gas and chemical plant industries. Process equipments are having its own standard design procedures and operating life’s according to its material properties. Some of the equipments need frequent refurbishment as well as proper maintenance during operations due to the various working conditions. The code practices that process equipments need to be designed for time span of 20 to 25 years. However failures occurring during operations are unpredictable but it is diagnosable. It may be due to various reasons such as malfunctioning of components and wrong operations. In this paper the work is such that if the crack is generated axially inside due to load or corrosion, how much more operation the vessel would sustain. If the cracks grow continuously due to frequent loads how long the un-cracked thicknesses would withstand the internal pressure loads. ASME based designed pressure vessel has been considered for this study. The typical pressure vessel crack has been modeled internally in axial directions. The operating load has been applied and the behavior of cracks and its load confrontations were simulated using finite element technology and the results were presented.