Stress Linearisation for Practising Engineers

Introduction

The process of stress linearisation was originally developed to assist practising engineers working in the design and analysis of pressure retaining equipment (pressure vessels, pipes, pumps, etc.) and, using general finite element models, to predict the stresses in these structures. In a mechanics of materials approach, structural forms such as pressure vessels are considered as shells and the codified assessment procedures, such as ASME, require the stresses to be cast in the form of stress resultants found in a shell member, i.e., membrane, bending shear resultants etc. When a pressure vessel, or similar, is analysed using continuum finite elements, then these stress resultants are not part of the standard output. These stress resultants may, however, be recovered by operating on the finite element stress field by the process of stress linearisation. The stress resultants may then further be operated on to obtain stress measures suitable for comparison with allowable limits prescribed in the codes of practice.

Author

Angus Ramsay

Keywords

Stress Linearisation; Numerical Experiments

Useful Links

Stress-Linearisation-Front

Search