Parametric FEA Study of Burst Pressure of Cylindrical Shell Intersections

In an earlier paper (2009, “Burst Pressure of Pressurized Cylinders With the Hillside Nozzle,” ASME J. Pressure Vessel Technol., 131(4), p. 041204), an elastic-plastic large deflection analysis method was used to determine the burst pressure and fracture location of hillside cylindrical shell intersections by use of nonlinear finite element analysis. To verify the accuracy of the finite element results, experimental burst tests were carried out by pressurizing test vessels with nozzles to burst. Based on the agreement between the numerical simulations and experimental results of Wang et al. (2009, “Burst Pressure of Pressurized Cylinders With the Hillside Nozzle,” ASME J. Pressure Vessel Technol., 131(4), p. 041204), a parametric study is now carried out. Its purpose is to develop a correlation equation by investigating the relationship between various geometric parameters (⁠$d/D$⁠, $D/T$⁠, and $t/T$⁠) and the burst pressure. Forty-seven configurations, which are deemed to cover most of the practical cases, are chosen to perform this study. In addition, four different materials are employed to verify that the proposed equation can be employed for different materials. The results show that the proposed equation resulting from the parametric analysis can be employed to predict the static burst pressure of cylindrical shell intersections for a wide range of geometric ratios.