Stresses in horizontal storage vessels - a comparison of theory and experiments

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Abstract
This paper presents the salient features of the experimental work carried out on a series of horizontal storage vessels. These include a 3.66 m diameter gas receiver and two smaller vessels each of 0.91 m diameter. The saddles used to support the vessels represent the two extremes of saddle design where the cantilever section is either of ‘flexible’ or ‘rigid’ construction and in both cases welded to the vessels. All the vessels were extensively strain gauged in the region of the saddle supports and at the centre of the vessel. Hydraulic, pressure surcharge and pneumatic tests were carried out on the vessels. Typical experimental results have been compared with the theoretical analysis described in (1)†. It is found that a satisfactory measure of agreement is obtained for both the flexible and more rigid results for the water fill tests, but that the pressure results are sensitive to vessel imperfection which are not considered in the theoretical analysis (1).