A Review of Finite Element Methods in Pressure Vessel and Piping Stress Analysis
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Abstract
The building blocks of the industrial process systems are pressure vessels and piping networks, in which a leak or a loss of integrity may have disastrous safety, environmental, and economic impacts. With the ever-growing operating pressures, temperatures and the complexity of the systems, stable stress analysis has emerged as one of the major requirements in system design and evaluation. The present paper is a review of traditional and new methods of stress analysis of pressure vessels and piping with emphasis on the Finite Element Method (FEM). The restrictions of traditional analytical and code-based methods of managing complex geometries, combinations of loads, and local stress impacts are addressed. Special focus is laid on the behavior of stress in pipelines, study of nozzle in pressure vessels, classification of stresses and failure mode. Recent research advancements, such as advanced numerical modeling, coupled thermal structural analysis, experimental stress monitoring, and data-based prediction methods, are also surveyed in the paper. This review offers a clear vision of the emerging role of FEM and related methods in the design of safe, efficient, and reliable pressure vessel and piping systems by bringing together the existing methodologies and identifying the available research gaps.
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