Pressure Vessel Design Overview

In a Pressure Vessel Design study, you combine the results of static studies with the desired factors. Each static study has a different set of loads that produce corresponding results. These loads can be dead loads, live loads (approximated by static loads), thermal loads, seismic loads, and so on. The Pressure Vessel Design study combines the results of the static studies algebraically using a linear combination or the square root of the sum of the squares (SRSS).

When using a solid mesh, the software provides a stress linearization tool to separate bending and membrane components.

  • Important - Only loads can vary. The materials, restraints, contact conditions, model configurations, and meshes of the static studies being combined must be identical.
  • The solution is valid only if the results are in the linear range. Therefore, the studies cannot use Large Displacement solution or No Penetration contact since the linearity assumption fails in these cases.
  • This functionality is largely used in the design of pressure vessels. Design and manufacturing codes require combining certain load scenarios.
  • The software does not solve a set of simultaneous equations. It reads existing results of the selected studies and combines them.
  • When calculating quantities such as resultant displacements and von Mises and principal stresses, the software first combines the directional components.
  • For Pressure Vessel Design studies using SRSS, you cannot create displacement or deformation plots. This is because negative components of displacement become positive when squared. This produces incorrect results when the values are summed.
  • Reports are not available for Pressure Vessel Design studies in this release.