Stresses in multi-shell toroidal pressure vessels

Abstract eng:
Toroidal shells provide a solution for fluid containment in applications in space, on land and in the sea. As part of a programme into the search for new and more efficient forms of toroidal shells for fluid containment, this paper presents a derivation of stresses in a multi-shell toroidal vessel whose cross-section comprises four smoothly joined circular segments of different radii. In the formulation, the membrane solution is adopted as the particular solution of the general bending-theory equations, and an approximate bending solution is used to quantify discontinuity effects at the shell junctions. A comparison of the results of the derived analytical formulation versus those of a refined finite-element model shows that the developed approach gives an accurate estimate of stresses throughout the vessel. The results also shed some understanding on the stress distribution in this type of toroidal vessel, particularly around the geometric discontinuities.

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