Development of Simplified Plastic Collapse Assessment Procedure for Vessel With Internal Surface Flaw

A simplified assessment procedure using the p-M diagram, which can evaluate the plastic collapse load for pressure equipment such as vessels, piping and storage tanks with an internal surface flaw simultaneously subjected to internal pressure, p, and external bending moment, M, due to earthquake, etc., is derived by taking into account the influence of internal pressure acting on the flaw surface. For an internal surface flaw subjected to pressure, the already-proposed p-M diagram for an external flaw can be applied if the parameters for an internal surface flaw proposed in this paper are used. And the plastic collapse loads derived from the p-M diagram method are being verified by comparison with experimental results. It has been clarified that the parameters for internal surface flaws are also the same as those for external surface flaws where the ratio of thickness to outer radius of a vessel is significantly smaller than unity and internal pressure is small.