Strength of a cylindrical pressure vessel with individual ellipsoidal dished heads.

The paper is devoted to the static stress analysis of a cylindrical tank closed with two non-classical dished heads. The description of the geometry of the dished head in the form of super-ellipsoid is provided containing two dimensionless parameters to control the depth and curvature of the ellipsoid. The equivalent stress distribution along the meridian of the head is calculated analytically and numerically with the use of the finite element method. Based on the analysis of the stress in the whole tank it can be concluded that the replacement of the classical ellipsoidal head with the super-ellipsoidal one may decrease the edge effect at the junction of the two shells. This positive effect increases with the increase of the depth of the head. • Geometrical description of the super-ellipsoidal shell is provided. • Application of the super-ellipsoidal shell as a dished head of the cylindrical tank is discussed. • Super-ellipsoidal head allows to control the stress distribution in the cylindrical tank. • The use of super-ellipsoidal head diminishes the edge effect in cylindrical tank. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]