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Hoop, Axial and Radial Stresses in Thick-Walled Pressure Vessels

Created using ANYS 14.5

Problem Specification

Consider the following pressurized thick-walled hydraulic cylinder. The following figure shows a section through the mid-plane.

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Note: For this problem, the material choice will not affect the stresses; it will only affect the displacements and strains. 

Learning Goals

The purpose of this tutorial is to showcase, in a relatively simple situation, where thin-wall pressure vessel theory is no longer as valid as it is in the limit of large radius-to-thickness ratios. The point is that inadequate theory should not be used for validation purposes in the limit that the physical assumptions on which the theory is based break down. In this problem, this happens gradually as the vessel walls become thicker. This tutorial is meant to highlight where it is relatively straightforward to apply axisymmetric FEA and resolve a solution correctly that disprove analytical treatment with simple formulae derived for thin-walled vessels.

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