Numerical Investigation of Design Parameters Influence on Stress Distributions in Horizontal Multi-saddle Cylindrical Pressure Vessel

The Industrial autoclaves which are used for curing the Fly Ash brick are to be designed as pressure vessels. They are typically distinguished from other pressure vessels by their length. They are oriented horizontally and saddles are used to support along the length. These large horizontal autoclaves can be twin supported or Multi-saddle supported depending on the length of the autoclave. They are prone to high circumferential and bending stress in vessel and saddle regions. Various factors plays crucial role in stress distribution in the saddle vessel interface area. To find out the influence of design parameters parametric study has been carried out. The industrial case study of autoclave has been taken and CAD model has been developed with actual dimension of the pressure vessel. Further finite element analysis has been carried out to check the effect of various parameters on the stresses state of the pressure vessel. The combined effect of various design parameters needs to be checked out and for that the design of experiment has been carried out by response surface methodology. The centre composite design has been selected for the purpose. Linear model is fitted for stress in horn area while quadratic model is fitter for stress in rib and flange area. The suggested model can be used for mapping in design space and also can be useful for optimization. (c) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.