analysis of elastic-plastic stress distribution in thin- wall cylinders and spheres subjected to internal pressure and nuclear radiation heating

摘要

The steady-state elastic-plastic stress distributions in cylindrical and spherical vessels subjected to internal pressure, symmetrical nuclear heating, and inside-wall cooling were calculated. A finite-difference method combined with a technique of successive approximations was used. The material properties used were those of Inconel X, but the method used is applicable to any material. For given values of pressure load (pressure time’s radius) and heat flux, there is a minimum possible strain for each vessel configuration that occurs at a particular wall thickness for each configuration. Furthermore, for a given value of pressure load, the minimum strain for different heat fluxes occurs at essentially the same wall thickness. The optimum thicknesses and corresponding strains for the sphere were approximately half those for the cylinder for the same loads.