This book is the first monograph focusing on ellipsoidal heads, which are commonly used as an end closure of pressure vessels in chemical, petroleum, nuclear, marine, aerospace and food processing industries. It provides a comprehensive coverage of stress, failure, design and fabrication of ellipsoidal heads. This book investigates in detail buckling/plastic collapse behaviors of ellipsoidal heads using nonlinear finite element methods and experiments. Buckling/plastic collapse experiments are performed on 37 ellipsoidal heads which cover various geometric parameters, material and fabrication methods. In particular, modern measurement technologies, such as 3D laser scanning, are used in the experiments of these ellipsoidal heads including large heads with a diameter up to 5 metres. Moreover, this book presents new formulas for accurate prediction of buckling/plastic collapse pressures of ellipsoidal heads. Using elastic-plastic theory, this book proposes a new failure mechanism-based method for design of ellipsoidal heads. Compared to other methods in current codes and standards based on elastic or perfectly plastic theory, the new design method can fully develop the head's load-carrying capacity, which reduces head thickness and thus cost. Also, this book studies control on fabrication quality of ellipsoidal heads, including shape deviation, forming strain and forming temperature. It is useful as a technical reference for researchers and engineers in the fields of engineering mechanics, engineering design, manufacturing engineering and industrial engineering.

This book is the first monograph focusing on ellipsoidal heads, which are commonly used as an end closure of pressure vessels in chemical, petroleum, nuclear, marine, aerospace and food processing industries. It provides a comprehensive coverage of stress, failure, design and fabrication of ellipsoidal heads. This book investigates in detail buckling/plastic collapse behaviors of ellipsoidal heads using nonlinear finite element methods and experiments. Buckling/plastic collapse experiments are performed on 37 ellipsoidal heads which cover various geometric parameters, material and fabrication methods. In particular, modern measurement technologies, such as 3D laser scanning, are used in the experiments of these ellipsoidal heads including large heads with a diameter up to 5 metres. Moreover, this book presents new formulas for accurate prediction of buckling/plastic collapse pressures of ellipsoidal heads. Using elastic-plastic theory, this book proposes a new failure mechanism-based method for design of ellipsoidal heads. Compared to other methods in current codes and standards based on elastic or perfectly plastic theory, the new design method can fully develop the head's load-carrying capacity, which reduces head thickness and thus cost. Also, this book studies control on fabrication quality of ellipsoidal heads, including shape deviation, forming strain and forming temperature. It is useful as a technical reference for researchers and engineers in the fields of engineering mechanics, engineering design, manufacturing engineering and industrial engineering.

In recent years, the fundamental research on the structural strength and optimal deisgn of composite pressure vessel and piping under complex load and environment has become crucial to ensure safe, economical and reliable run of these structures in area of advanced energy utilization. The content of this book includes the strength prediction of composite vessel using composite laminate theory and finite element analysis, the optimal design using adaptive genetic algorithm and immune algorithm as well as the failure analysis under deflection load and the fatigue lifetime evaluation under cyclic vibrating load using finite element analysis for buried piping. Specially, the authors attempt to explain some physical phenomena such as the stiffness degradation in process of damage evolution for composites. In addition, some advanced methods for predicting the collapse failure of these structures using finite element analysis are also discussed. This book may provide a good reference available for the mechanical strength prediction and optimization of other complex structures.