Bending Stresses at Longitudinal Weld Joints of Pressurized Cylindrical Shells due to Angular Distortion

Abstract

This article presents a simple second-order theory for the determination of bending stresses which arise at the longitudinal welded joint of a pressurized, cylindrical shell subject to peaking, i.e., angular misalignment. Although this problem has been studied quite extensively over the years by a few authors and a few versions of simple formulas are available for the calculations of bending stresses at the welded joint, it is noted these formulas show considerable discrepancies when compared with the finite element solutions. As the additional bending stresses at the weld joint will lead to a shorter fatigue life of the joint, an improved theory to predict the peak stress at the weld joint, such as the one presented in this article, would be important and of interest to the design engineer and vessel inspector. The present theory has been validated against finite element results and shown to be extremely accurate.