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.

 

[moltenmetal]

Glass lines (solid glass, not glass-lined steel)greater than 6" ID and operating at pressures greater than 15 psig do exist in the chemical industry, but are not designed in accordance with either ASME VIII or B31.3 to my knowledge. You might wish to contact people such as QVF, Ace Glass, Buchi etc.

 

[unclesyd]

Have you looked at Asbestos Cement Pipe with a working pressure of up to 200 psig at RT. This type pipe is sized to 24" dia.
I don't know about the newer types, both types prestressed and non-prestressed cement pipe.

 

[rlacombe]

In the paintball world, some of the tanks use a thin aluminum inner cladding with fiberglass or carbon fiber rapping. I would consider neither of these brittle but is different than our standard steel vessel and may still fit your requirements. I think what you are looking for by definition is extremely dangerous and doesn't make much since seeing as steel vessels can be clad against corrosion and there are other materials that are both light(which most brittle materials are not),strong and chemical resistant. The sole purpose of mdmt's is to get away from brittleness. Just my $0.02

 

[unclesyd]

Eluding to the post by vesselfab here is some information on ceramic pressure vessels in operation aboard the Nereus, HROV from Wood's Hole and the Univ of Hawaii. This paper has some names and references. The work on these vessels was accomplished under a grant from the NSF so more information should available.
There Nereus is unique in that it doesn't have a tether and is controlled from the surface by a torpedo wire.

http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA499885&Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf

 

[curtis2004]

Although ceramic and glass is used in chemical industry for similar reasons, nature of ceramic and glass is completely different. Pure glass by structure is hardest and strongest material on earth (theoretically). However, numerous invisible to human eye micro cracks makes it very britle and limits use as a structural material.
To give you an idea what danger it represents using glass a pressure vessel let's see the following example:
Have you ever drop glass bottle, cup, or any other container? Now imagine what would happend if all this would be under 500 psi pressure?

 

[eadwine]

Cladding steel with various materials has been used for years to provide the appropriate corrosion resistance on the internal process and or external side of the vessel depending on the specific application and to get the higher strengths of PVQ's (pressure vessel quality steels) into the vessel structure. Clads can be anything from SS-exotic alloys, to glass, ceramic and polymers of various varieties. You might even wish to check out the new RFP vessels now being fabricated to ASME Code.

The advantage of using clad steels in pressure vessels is in the price reduction of the material used and in the Inspection & Maintenace Requirements and costs of normal steel vessels or full alloy vessels. But, this is all academic, so to speak, check in with the Alloy/Ceramic/Polymers Engineering Sections at Ohio State.

 

[ginsoakedboy]

Thanks, unclesyd. I was able to find many more from similar MIL sources.

"Transition-to-practice technologies for brittle materials", Generazio, Edward R., NASA Glenn Research Center.
URL:

http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19910010794_1991010794.pdf

"Ceramic External Pressure Housings for Deep Sea Vehicles", Dr. J.D. Stachiw, IEEE OCEANS 2006.
URL:

http://www.whoi.edu/science/AOPE/pe...l Pressure Housings for Deep Sea Vehicles.pdf

"Elastic Stability Considerations for Deep Submergence Ceramic Pressure Housings", R.R. Kurkchubasche, NCCOSC (Naval Command, Control and Ocean Surveillance Center, San Diego), 1993.
URL:

http://handle.dtic.mil/100.2/ADA264824

"Stress Analysis Considerations for Deep Submergence Ceramic Pressure Housings", Richard P Johnson, NCCOSC, 1993.
URL:

http://handle.dtic.mil/100.2/ADA262815

"NDE of ceramics and ceramic composites", Alex Vary, Stanley J. Klima, NASA.
URL:

http://library.iit.edu/govdocs/micro/NAS_1_15_104520.pdf

"Contact Fatigue of a Silicon Carbide with a Heterogeneous Grain Structure", Nitin Padture and Brian R. Lawn, Journal of American Ceramics Society, 78 [6] 1431-1438 (1995).
URL:

http://www.msel.nist.gov/lawn/Publications/Papers.BRL/PapersBRL.1995/JACS 78 1431 1995.pdf