Stress analysis of a reversed dish head of a cylindrical pressure vessel

Abstract

Cylindrical, steam-pressurized vessels with ‘reversed dish’ heads are in wide use in the textile industries. The complicated head design had not previously been analyzed and was designed using limited strain gage data. A finite element analysis of the head was performed and compared to the strain gage data. It was found that the head did meet the ASTM standard even though the strain gage locations were not in the region where the largest principal stresses occurred.