Gross plastic deformation of axisymmetric pressure vessel heads

The gross plastic deformation and associated plastic loads of four axisymmetric torispherical pressure vessels is determined by two criteria of plastic collapse: the ASME Twice Elastic Slope TES criterion and the recently proposed Plastic Work Curvature PWC criterion. Finite element analysis was performed assuming small and large deformation theory and elastic-perfectly plastic and bilinear kinematic hardening material models. Two plastic collapse modes are identified: bending dominated plastic collapse of the knuckle region, in small deformation models and membrane dominated plastic collapse of the cylinder or domed end, in large deformation models. In both circumstances, the PWC criterion indicates that a plastic hinge bending mechanism leads to gross plastic deformation and is used as a parameter to identify the respective plastic loads. The results of the analyses also show that the PWC criterion leads to higher design loads for strain hardening structures than the TES criterion, as the criterion takes account of the effect of strain hardening on the evolution of the gross plastic deformation mechanism.peer-reviewe