The Collapse or Ballooning Pressure of Thick-Walled Pressure Vessels

Abstract

ABSTRACTDiscussion of the proposed extension of the ASME pressure vessel code to cover operating pressures up to 1.4 GPa (200000 lbf/in2 ) has generated the proposal that two criteria should be used, of which one would be the collapse or ballooning pressure not the bursting pressure. The present paper examines this proposal in relation to extensive data on the collapse and bursting of thick-walled vessels available to the author.It is concluded that the collapse pressure is only readily calculable for materials which approach the behaviour of an elastic/perfectly plastic material. It also appears for materials with significant strain hardening characteristics, such as mild steel, that the collapse pressure considerably underestimates the bursting pressure, whereas for a material which behaves as an elastic/perfectly plastic material the collapse pressure is nearly coincident with the bursting pressure. Consequently if the collapse pressure was adopted and if the factor of safety against collapse was adequate for one material it might be more or less than adequate for another material, which would appear to be unacceptable.