Structural Integrity Assessment against

Buckling failures

Somesh Rai
Head Fuel Handling Section
Reactor Technology Division
Reactor Design & Development Group
Bhabha Atomic Research Centre
somesh@barc.gov.in

HBNI-INSTN Joint Course on Structural Integrity Assessment of Mechanical Components: Concepts & Procedures
11-15 March, 2024
 Content
 Buckling of vessels : Introduction

 Buckling of vessels under external pressure

 Elastic buckling of circular ring and long cylinders

 Effect of end supports on critical collapse pressure

 ASME procedure for vessel design for buckling

 Design of stiffener rings and ASME methodology

 Design of shells under axial compression

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 Buckling of vessels : Introduction
• Vessels under external/ internal (ellipsoidal/ tori-spherical heads) pressure
→ Compressive hoop stress → additional failure mode ‘buckling’
• Design against internal pressure - based on elastic analysis :
– Stress and deflections are proportional to the applied loads
– Failure occurs when stress exceeds YS or UT
• Buckling instability can occur at stresses well below the elastic limit or YS
• Pressure equal to critical value sufficient to produce complete failure –
critical collapse pressure
• Significant characteristic of elastic buckling - elastic deflections are not
proportional to the loads.
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 Buckling of ellipsoidal/ tori-spherical heads under internal pressure
• Compressive Hoop stress in knuckle region in Tori-spherical head (always)
and ellipsoidal head (D/2h > 𝟐𝟐) : localized buckling

For tori-spherical head ASME specifies :

• t/L ≥ 0.002
• r/L ≥ 0.06
• r > 3t

Prevention of local buckling in knuckle region :

• Entire head of adequate thickness
• Annular knuckle region of adequate thickness
• Annular stiffeners in knuckle region

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 Buckling of vessels under external pressure
• Examples – Submersibles, vacuum chambers/tanks, HX tubes, nuclear fuel element
• Failure modes : compressive yielding or buckling
• Buckling : Under external pressure, when the compressive force in a vessel
approaches a critical value, radial deflections begin and increase rapidly with
increase in the compressive force.
• Column buckling phenomenon exhibit in thin walled cylindrical vessel under
external pressure
• Sudden collapse without much warning
• Buckles in definite pattern depending upon its relative dimensions and restraints at
ends
• Sensitive to geometrical irregularities like ovality.
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• Evaluation of Critical collapse pressure
Elastic Buckling of Circular Ring
• Ring is assumed to be perfectly circular before
application of external pressure.
• Circular ring of unit length of thickness ‘t’ and
outer radius ‘r’
• Arc ‘ab’ subjected to a direct compressive hoop
force.
• Similar to a straight slender column
• Euler’s formula (both ends pinned): Pc = π2EI/L2
• Neglect curvature
Approx
• Length = one quarter of the circumference of
the ring L = 2πr/4 6
 Elastic Buckling of Circular Ring

Exact equation of collapse pressure derived using curved beam theory is:
Where,
pc = critical collapse ext. pressure,
r = outer radius of the ring
t = wall thickness,
d = outer diameter,
E = Young’s modulus of elasticity
I = area moment of inertia.
For higher no. of lobes

k = no. of lobes
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Buckling modes & Critical Pressure

k = no. of lobes

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 Buckling of cylindrical shell
• Buckles in a definite pattern depending on its relative dimensions (D/t &
L/D ratios) and the restraint conditions at the ends.
• Patterns are described by the number of lobes (2, 3, 4 etc.)
• Thin walled long cylinder (L>>D) - buckle elastically in the form of two lobes
• Thick walled cylinder or short thin walled cylinder (with end supports) fails
in compressive yielding
• Intermediate length cylinder (with end supports) buckles in higher modes
i.e. number of lobes could be higher

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 Buckling of long cylinder
• In finding the elastic collapse pressure for long cylinders (free ends) - an
isolated ring of unit length considered.
• Theory of elastic buckling for a circular ring can also be used for long
cylinders or tubes
• It is only necessary to substitute for the ring rigidity, EI, with the comparable
plate flexural rigidity, D = EI / (1 –ν2)
• The critical pressure equation for long cylinder becomes:

Corresponding compressive stress (critical stress) given by

does not exceed the YS.

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 Failure curve of cylinder under external pressure

For lower d/t ratio : Compressive yielding : use of high strength material
For higher d/t ratio : Buckling failure : use of high Elastic modulus 11
 Buckling of long cylinder with end supports
• Same formulas also apply to cylinders with end supports if the length is
large;
– consequently their stiffening effect can be neglected,
– Collapse occur in central portion of cylinder in the form of two lobes
• If the length of the cylinder is not large relative to its diameter,
– end supports must be considered in calculating the buckling collapse pressure,
– as they will prevent the cylinder from collapsing in two lobes and force it into higher
modes,
– thereby increasing the minimum critical pressure (pc )

• Long, short & Intermediate

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 Long Cylinder
• If the length of cylinder is beyond some critical value (Lcr) - no effect of
supports i.e. cylinder will buckle forming two lobes.

• The critical length is given by:

Lcr = 1.11 d √(d/t)

• If the stiffeners or end supports are located beyond the critical length (Lcr),
the collapse pressure is given by:

• Critical collapse pressure is a function of d/t and independent on L/d

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 Short Cylinder
• when Cylinder length is very small (L < Lmin ) - failure is by plastic yielding.
• Failure is characteristics of thick walled cylinder in which the influence of
length (L) is negligible.
• Failure is predicted by the membrane stress as given by:

• Critical collapse pressure is a function of d/t and independent on L/d

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 Intermediate Cylinder
• when length of cylinder Lmin < L < Lcr
• Failure in more than 2 lobes – buckling
• US Experimental Model Basin (assuming ν = 0.3) gives simplified formula
for critical collapse pressure as :

•Critical pressure is a function of both L/d and d/t.

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Variation of collapse pressure with length of cylinder
(log-log plot)

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 ASME Terminology
t = thickness
Do = Outer dia.
E = Youngs modulus
L = Dist. between supports
Pc = Critical Collapse pressure
Pa = Allowable pressure (Pc / FOS=3)
σc/E = FACTOR A (critical strain)
σc/2 = FACTOR B (critical stress)

ASME methodology determines first critical strain (FACTOR A), then corresponding critical
stress (FACTOR B)

Curves for evaluating Factor A & Factor B given in ASME Section IID, Sub part-1 17
 ASME Terminology
ASME code has given curves of FACTOR A for
various L/Do and Do /t ratios

For Factor A greater than 0.10, use a value of 0.10.

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 ASME Terminology
ASME code has given curves of FACTOR A vs
FACTOR B for various materials

𝐸𝐸
Factor B = .Factor A
2

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 ASME Design procedure : cylindrical vessel
Problem Definition : Do, L, External applied pressure (P) given,
wall thickness (t) has to be designed.
For Do/t ≥ 10
Step 1 : Assume some t. Calculate L/Do and Do/t.
Step 2 : Determine FACTOR A corresponding to L/Do and Do/t from ASME curves.
Step 3 : Determine FACTOR B corresponding to FACTOR A from ASME curves.
Step 4 : Determine allowable pressure, Pa, using

Step 5 : Check –
Pa > P. Design is alright.
Pa < P. Increase (t) and go back to Step 1.
Pa >> P. Reduce (t) and go back to Step 1.
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 ASME Design procedure : cylindrical vessel
For Do/t < 10
Assume some t. Calculate L/Do and Do/t.
If 4 < Do/t < 10 : Determine FACTOR A corresponding to L/Do and Do/t from ASME curves.
If Do/t < 4 : Determine FACTOR A as

Determine FACTOR B corresponding to FACTOR A from ASME curves.

Determine allowable pressure, Pa, lesser of

S, lesser of
1.5 Sm or 0.9 x σy at Design temp (IID) (Section III NB)
Check – 2xS (IID) or 0.9 x σy (= 2x max Factor B) at design temp
Pa > P. Design is alright. (Section VIII-1)
Pa < P. Increase (t)
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 ASME Design procedure : spherical vessel
Step 1. Assume some t. Calculate FACTOR A as

Step 2. Determine FACTOR B corresponding to FACTOR A from ASME curves.

Step 3. Determine allowable pressure, Pa, using

Step 4. Check –
Pa > P. Design is alright.
Pa < P. Increase (t) and go back to Step 1.
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 Design of Stiffening Rings
• When external pressures are high and/or diameters are large, cylinders
become extremely thick and expensive.
• Use of ring stiffeners : Savings in weight and material - attached to cylinder
along length.
• Check the stiffening ring for elastic stability
• The area moments of inertia of shell and stiffener ring act together to resist
collapse.
• Each stiffener is considered to resist the external load for a ‘L/2’ distance on
either side of the ring

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 Design of Stiffening Rings

• Timoshenko has shown that Icombined may be evaluated with an equivalent additional
shell thickness.
• Equivalent thickness for the shell and stiffener combination is given by :

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Design of Stiffening Rings
Generally, Icomb = (1.3-1.7) Istiff alone

Conservatively, Istiff = Icomb / 1.3 + 10% margin

or 10.9

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ASME Methodology of Stiffener Design

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 Cylinderical vessel under axial compression
Problem Definition : Inner radius (R) , External applied pressure (P) given, Sm for the
applicable material at Design temp. from Section II, Part D
wall thickness (t) has to be designed.
Step 1 : Assume some t. Calculate induced axial (longitudinal) stress, 𝝈𝝈𝑳𝑳 .
𝟎𝟎.𝟏𝟏𝟏𝟏𝟏𝟏
Step 2 : Determine FACTOR A = 𝑹𝑹
( )
𝒕𝒕
Step 3 : Determine FACTOR B corresponding to FACTOR A from ASME curves.
𝐸𝐸
Factor B = .Factor A (if Factor A falling left side)
2
Step 4 : Check –
𝝈𝝈𝑳𝑳 < lesser of [Sm or Factor B]. Design is alright.
𝝈𝝈𝑳𝑳 > lesser of [Sm or Factor B]. Increase (t) and go back to Step 1.
𝝈𝝈𝑳𝑳 << lesser of [Sm or Factor B]. Reduce (t) and go back to Step 1.
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Thank you

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