Plastic Loads for Internally Pressurized Toroidal Shells

Abstract

Tests on two internally pressurized toroidal shells are described in this paper. These were laboratory scale models manufactured by welding 90°, 316L steel elbows. The outside diameter of the toroids was about 310.0 mm, radius of the tube was about 41.0 mm, and the wall thickness was about 3.0 mm. Comparison of experimental and numerical plastic loads, based on pressure versus volume change plots, is given. The magnitude of experimentally derived plastic loads was about 16.0 MPa which was close to the numerical predictions. Both shells failed by developing cracks in welds, at nozzles, at pressure of about 33.0 MPa.