Design of storage equipment:
Pressure Vessels
Outline
• Codes and standards
• General design considerations
• Design of thin walled vessels
Introduction
• Vessel design: mostly in the camps of mechanical
engineering
• Aspects of vessel design relevant to ChE:
– Estimation of vessel dimensions and weight
• Fluids, operating T&P, materials of construction
– Check for fit in the process layout
• Vessel orientation, type of vessel heads, heating/cooling requirements,
agitator selection
– Estimation of the vessel cost (function of volume, wall thickness
and shape)
• Definition of a pressure vessel: D>150 mm, ΔP>0.5 bar
• Thin vs. thick walled vessels
– Thin wall: wall thickness:vessel dia < 1:10 – mostly used
– Thick wall: wall thickness:vessel dia > 1:10
Codes and standards
• Cover details for design, materials of construction,
fabrication, inspection and testing of pressure vessels
– British Standard PD 5500
– EU Standard EN 13445
– ASME code Section VIII
• Set by groups of engineers experienced on vessel design
and manufacture
• Combination of theory, experiment and experience
• Periodically reviewed and updated (every 2 years)
General design considerations
Factors affecting design a pressure vessel:
• Operating and design T&P
• Materials of construction
• Design stress
• Welded joint efficiency
• Corrosion allowance
• External factors
General design considerations (cont’d)
• Operating and design T&P
– Design P = 5-10% above the operating P (setting of the pressure relief
device)
– Design T = max. operating T
• Materials of construction
– Carbon steel, low/high alloy stainless steels, reinforced plastics
– Compatibility w/ fabrication (e.g. welding) & process environment
• Design stress
– Determined by applying a safety factor (design stress factor) to the test
values of tensile strength
– Safety factor accounts uncertainties in design methods, quality of
materials, fabrication. Btw. 1.5–4.0.
– Tensile strength: stress needed to cause 0.1% of extension.
– Design stresses
• Table 13.2 @ pp. 1001, Sinnott & Towler
• Table 12.10 @ pp. 555, PTW
General design considerations (cont’d)
Table 13.2 (S&T) Typical design stress values
General design considerations (cont’d)
Welded joint efficiency
• A welded joint may cause reduction in design stress (vs. an unwelded
blank plate), depending on the quality of welding and type of joint.
• Quality of welding is
– evaluated by visual inspection or by radiography.
– Quantified by J, welded joint factor (0<J <1)
• For fully radiographed weld, whose defects are remade, J = 1.0 (no
strength reduction due to welding)
• Lower radiography (reduced inspection costs) induces lower J values
requiring thicker walls (higher material cost).
• For typical J values, refer to:
– Table 13.3, pp. 1002 Sinnott & Towler
– Table 12.10, pp. 555 PTW
General design considerations (cont’d)
Table 13.3. (S&T) Maximum allowable joint efficiencies
General design considerations (cont’d)
• Corrosion allowance
– Additional thickness of metal to allow material loss by
corrosion/erosion.
– For carbon steel: 2 mm (under normal conditions), up to 4 mm
(under extreme conditions)
– General: minimum 1 mm.
• External factors
– Factors affecting vessel design other than pressure:
• Dead weight of the vessel and its contents
• Wind
• Earthquake
• Loads imposed by piping and attached equipment
• Shock loads, caused by water hammer or vacuum effects
• Expansion/contraction due to temperature changes
General design considerations (cont’d)
Minimum practical wall-thickness (any geometry)
Vessel diameter (m) Minimum thickness (mm)
1.0 5
1.0 – 2.0 7
2.0 – 2.5 9
2.5 – 3.0 10
3.0 – 3.5 12
Minimum = Structural rigidity
Values include a corrosion allowance of 2 mm
Design of thin-walled pressure vessels
• Objective: Evaluate the min. wall thickness needed to resist internal
pressure
• Two major elements: Shells (Cylindrical and spherical) and
heads/closures
• S: Design stress (N/mm2), E: welded joint efficiency
For cylindrical shells BS 5500 For spherical shells
ASME Boiler and
Pressure Vessel Code
• For thick wall vessels, refer to Table 12-10, pp. 554 @ PTW
Design of thin-walled
pressure vessels (cont’d)
• Heads and closures
– Flat plates and formed flat heads
– Domed heads
• Hemispherical heads
• Ellipsoidal heads
• Torispherical heads Flat plates/heads
• Flat plates/heads
– Cheap, low fabrication cost
– Not structurally efficient, low Hemispherical
resistance to high pressures
• Domed heads
– Ideal for high pressure applications
– Torispherical heads up to 15 bar Ellipsoidal
– Ellipsoidal heads > 15 bar
– Hemisperical heads – most rigid shape Torispherical
w/ highest cost of manufacturing
Domed heads
Design of thin-walled
pressure vessels
Design of flat ends (ASME BPV Code)
Design of thin-walled pressure vessels (cont’d)
Design of domed ends (ASME
BPV Code)
• Hemispherical heads
– Hemispherical head
thickness:cylindrical shell thickness
= 0.6 (optimal value)
• Ellipsoidal heads (w/ major:minor
axis = 2:1)
• Torispherical heads
Typically, Rk = 0.06Rc
Example problem
Example problem (cont’d)
Example problem (cont’d)
Example problem (cont’d)
