Burst Pressure of Pressurized Cylinders With Hillside Nozzle

Abstract

The burst pressure of cylinders with hillside nozzle is determined using both experimental and finite element analysis (FEA) approaches. Three full-scale test models with different angles of the hillside nozzle were designed and fabricated specifically for a hydrostatic test in which the cylinders were pressurized with water. 3D static nonlinear finite element simulations of the experimental models were performed to obtain the burst pressures. The burst pressure is defined as the internal pressure for which the structure approaches dimensional instability, i.e., unbounded strain for a small increment in pressure. Good agreement between the predicted and measured burst pressures shows that elastic-plastic finite element analysis is a viable option to estimate the burst pressure of the cylinders with hillside nozzles. The preliminary results also suggest that the failure location is near the longitudinal plane of the cylinder-nozzle intersection and that the burst pressure increases slightly with an increment in the angle of the hillside nozzle.