A Parametric Analysis of Structural Integrity of Pressure Vessel Installed in Open Air

摘要

Structures, installed in the open air are prone to wind load. Depending upon the geometry of the structure, its support at the ground level and the intensity of the wind, the wind load analysis can be a very important factor from the safety point of view. Especially, in case of a pressure vessel, such as a water tank or any chemical container. In the current study, only the effects of vibration on these structures have been focused. Several factors influence the lateral natural frequency of the structure. The aspect ratio (height versus width), nature of support at the base, supporting leg lengths and their counts, the mass of the vessel, are some influencing factors. Supporting legs are designed based on the compressive and buckling failures and standard tube structures have been adopted. Aspect ratios considered here varies as 2, 3 and 4 which confirms most of the practical applications. There have been several instances in the past where the vortex shedding frequency under steady wind velocity came close to the natural frequency of the structure and caused failure. Hence, in this study, we tried to predict the critical wind speed for which structure is prone to failure due to the resonating condition. The vortex shedding frequency depends on the steady wind speed, equivalent diameter of the pressure vessel and Strouhal and Reynolds numbers. Our analysis is carried out using SolidWorks and ANSYS. The results can be used as a guideline for the design of pressure vessel installed in the open air to avoid the resonating effect.