Influence of External Loads on Pressure-Carrying Capacity of Outlet Connections

Abstract

Six experiments were performed on mild steel models which confirm that the presence of external loads (axial force, coplanar moment, and shearing force) lowers the plastic limit pressure-carrying capacity of outlet connections from spherical pressure vessels. Excellent agreement is observed between experimental results and theoretical predictions obtained from lower-bound rigid plastic analysis. Similar agreement with upper bound analysis is obtained in the case of axisymmetric loading.