THE LOAD-CARRYING CAPACITY FOR SOME TUBULAR REACTORS AND STRESS CONCENTRATION

Abstract

The purpose of this paper was to evaluate the state of stress and the stress concentration in the main critical junctions of a tubular reactor. Additional two numerical analyses were developed to identify the critical junctions of reactor due to the main loads: temperature gradient and internal pressure. One analysis is based on the extension of classical thin shell theory and the flexibility matrix method and the second on the finite element method (FEM), by the package COSMOS/M Designer II. Comparative experimental study based on recording the strains at selected surface positions, for different values of the reaction loads, was done using strain gauges. The analyses reveal a reasonable accuracy of the results and accurate positioning of the critical junctions. The loads are variable, so that the study may give a primary estimation on the fatigue design and analysis.