Pressure vessel from brittle materials

[ginsoakedboy]

I am looking for some guidance on designing pressure vessels with brittle materials.

Ideally, I would prefer to get info on ceramics. I do realize, however, that is probably not going to be very straight forward. Alternatively, I can possibly use principles involved in pressure vessel design with concrete.

I am looking for the appropriate theories of failure to be used, dealing with fatigue associated with pressure cycles, best practises with FEA modeling of such materials and so on.

Maybe someone in nuclear/civil engineering fields help me out.

 

[metengr]

htlyst;
Before venturing out on this type of journey, what are the design pressure and vessel contents?

 

[ginsoakedboy]

metengr,

Good questions both.

Unfortunately, I do not have a big enough paycheck to be privy to this information. I am simply an errand boy for my boss on this. You will probably excuse me for the omission of this critical information.

We only have mechanical engineers here who have spent most of their careers in with designing metal parts or more specifically steel parts. So, this is particular task is a strange animal to everyone here.

 

[stanweld]

Glass pressure vessels have been made and are in use. Suggest googling Chemglass.

 

[TGS4]

You would also want to check out the information on cast iron pressure vessels.

 

[ginsoakedboy]

Any books or standards for design guidelines?

 

[MJCronin]

I think it is important at this time in the discussion to point out that the failure theory of most pressure vessel codes assume ductile materials.

(See the Harvey text)

Any kind of "Brittle material design" involves very large safety factors and hence a large cost of materials.

Being an "errand boy" responsible for FEA analysis of what may be a dangerous or hazardous vessel and being purposefully kept in the dark tells me there there are MBAs that lurk about in your organization

My opinion only

-MJC

 

[ginsoakedboy]

MJC,

Your post did not help at all.

It is my understanding that the application requires nonmetallic materials. I am aware of the limitations of concrete, ceramics etc. Hence, my query specifically requests for guidance or references on designing with *brittle materials*. It is right there in the subject.

I need to know which industry codes, guidelines or books I can use as an aid to design.

 

[israelkk]

What about a pressure vessel made of ductile metallic material but inside lined with non metallic material?

 

[TGS4]

See ASME Section VIII, Division 1 for cast iron. You will not find rules for FEA for pressure vessels made of brittle materials.

As MJCronin indicated, the Design Margins for Cast Iron approach 10, vs. 3.5 for ductile materials.

 

[vesselfab]

you may want to look at glass lined or ceramic lined carbon steel vessels.

a vessel made of glass is an accident waiting to happen

 

[speco]

htlyst,

I suggest that you might look into some heat exchangers which have phenolic-impregnated graphite components. The closest thing to ceramic components that I am aware of is silicon carbide tubing used in heat exchangers with extremely corrosive fluids. The only glass vessels I am familiar with are actually steel with glass linings.

I believe that most of these have something in common. The graphite exchangers use an extremely low allowable stress value, since the materials have very poor tensile strength properties, but are better under compression. They usually rely on more traditional materials for the shells. The ASME Code may have some guidelines available for these materials.

Regards,

Speco

 

[vpl]

htlyst

Are you really wanting a pressure vessel made from brittle materials or are you wanting one made of non-metallics? There is a bit of a difference.


Patricia Lougheed

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[ginsoakedboy]

Small pressure vessel made out of either ceramics or concrete.
Either way, I am dealing with brittle, nonmetallic materials.

 

[vesselfab]

There is research being done for deep sea robotic flotation vessel made of ceramic and folks are looking at ceramic composites for high temp/pressure for power plants.

as far as i know, everything is experimental prototypes for now and no one is building them commercially

I don't know if these research types will be willing to share their studies with anyone as i am sure they will be looking for patents to help pay for their research.

 

[unclesyd]

There quite a number of pre-stressed concrete vessels around.
This is one of many sites that have information on such vessels.

http://www.fischer-tropsch.org/DOE/DOE_reports/1775/fe-1775-19/fe-1775-19.pdf

 

[vesselguy]

I will bet my first son that you will not find any open literature on your topic. I remember my materials course in 4th year which says there is no fatigue for brittle material. It just let go. I sure don't want to walk near your brittle vessel in operations.

If you need ceramic, or such brittle material, for a vessel it must be because of the process. So, design a steel vessel and lined it with the ceramic or glass or whatever. This is how glass lined vessels are built.

 

[EdStainless]

I have seen small (bench top) ceramic pressure vessels, they were over wrapped with multiple layers of carbon/epoxy composite. Each component was designed for a SF of 10.
Serious temperature limits because of the epoxy, as I recall about 350F.
These replaced ones made of Pt.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Plymouth Tube

 

[unclesyd]

Here is a book that has some discussion on the construction of PV's made from concrete and cast iron.

You might search under nuclear construction as there has been considerable work on prestressed concrete pressure vessels in that field.

http://books.google.com/books?id=SZ...v=onepage&q=concrete pressure vessels&f=false

 

[ginsoakedboy]

EdStainless,

We are considering sizes from 10" to 22" (ID). Can you elaborate about the ceramic vessels you mentioned?