Hydrotest Analysis of Pressure Vessel

Abstract

This dissertation illustrates the application of CAD software for design and analysis of pressure vessels. After extensive literature survey, it has been found that there is very little work is being carried out to study the behavior of the vessel subjected to loading during the hydrostatic testing. In this dissertation finite element analysis has been carried out for the vessel subjected to such type of loading in order to study the behavior of the vessel during the test. Analysis has been carried out using IDEAS 11 Nx Series application software. Analysis presented in this report justifies the need of finite element analysis for such type of loading.

In order to validate the results of finite element analysis, strain gauging was done on a small pressure vessel at Larsen & Toubro Limited, Hazira Works, Surat. During the experiment, strains and diametrical expansion of the vessel were measured using strain gauges and LVDTs respectively. Results of strains and displacements obtained from experiment have been compared with corresponding values obtained from finite element analysis.

It is found from the results that the difference between experimental values of the strain and the values obtained from the finite element analysis is within the range of 18 percent, whereas the difference in the displacements is within the range of 20 percent.