Analysis of a cylindrical shell supported by two longitudinal beams

A shell analysis model has been developed to determine the stress and strain developed in cylindrical vessels supported by two longitudinal beams which extend the full length of the cylinder. A contact stress approach has been formulated to find the interface reaction Pressures between the cylinder and the beam supports and a cylindrical shell theory has been used to obtain the stress and displacement in the shell. A comparison has been made between the present theory and a set of published experimental and finite element results. Good agreement has been found between them. The maximum strain in the beam-supported cylindrical vessel has been found to occur at the mid-span of the vessel in the vicinity of the beam support. A parametric study shows that the most efficient way of supporting the vessel is to locate the beam support at the equator of the shell. With this support arrangement the peak strain in the shell is the lowest compared with other cases. Lastly a simple ring theory has been proposed and derived which provides quick and accurate results for the peak strain distribution.