Design modifications of pressure boilers with flat endplates with stress relief groove

Stress concentration is still present in the vicinities of structural notches in engineering structures. Zones with higher level of stress are particularly dangerous for structures subjected to fatigue or dynamic loads. The vessels with flat endplates with stress relief grooves are the common examples of such structures. Unfortunately, no clear evidence is given in existing codes how optimally to choose the circular groove radius and the optimal value of that radius depends on the dimensions of the boiler, operating conditions and the material used in manufacturing. Additionally, commonly used grooves with circular shapes are not optimal. Series of experimental tests, numerical or analytical studies presented in numerous articles confirmed these facts. In the presented article, the Authors proposed two-stage modification of the investigated vessel. The first step relies on change of the shape of the groove in the endplate, which provides certain reduction of stress concentration but still plastic deformations in the groove vicinity are not eliminated. The second step of the design modification is proposed for the boiler with the optimal elliptic groove configuration. In this step, some material is added around the top of the outer edge of the endplate. Two simple shapes are proposed for these parts - the short cylindrical ring or alternatively the circular ring welded on the top the endplate is used. For both concepts, the search of optimal dimension/parameters is performed. The numerical results of that study clearly show that the full elimination of plastic deformations near the groove is possible. The numerical analysis and optimizations were made with the well- established finite element software ANSYS, which is accepted by commonly used codes for designing of pressure vessels.