Nonlinear Buckling Analysis of Cylindrical Shell With Normal Nozzle Subjected to Axial Loads

Design of Large-scale and light-weight pressure vessels is an inexorable trend of industrial development. These large thin-walled vessels are prone to buckling failure when subjected to compression loads and other destabilizing loads. Thus, buckling analysis is a primary and even the most important part of design for these pressure vessels. Local buckling failure will probably occur when cylindrical shells with nozzle subjected to axial loads. In this paper, a FE model of cylindrical shell with a normal nozzle is established in ANSYS Workbench. The bifurcation buckling analysis is performed by using an elastic-plastic stress analysis with the effect of nonlinear geometry, and a collapse analysis is performed with an initial imperfection. The axial buckling loads are obtained by these two types of method. Some issues about nonlinear buckling analysis are discussed through this study case.