Estimation of the stresses in rotational autofrettage of thick-walled pressure vessels using von mises yield criterion

Abstract

Rotational autofrettage is one of the recently proposed potential methods for eliminating the in-service yielding of thick-walled cylindrical pressure vessels. A few researchers have studied the feasibility of the process theoretically, and asserted certain advantages over the practicing hydraulic and swage autofrettage processes. In the literature, all theoretical analyses on the rotational autofrettage are based on the Tresca yield criterion and its associated flow rule, along with the assumption of different plane end conditions (plane strain and generalized plane strain). In this paper, an analysis of the rotational autofrettage of cylindrical vessel is attempted incorporating von Mises yield criterion. The plane strain condition is used for the analysis. A numerical shooting method is used to solve the governing differential equations providing the elastic-plastic stress distributions in the cylinder during loading. The present procedure is numerically experimented for a typical AH36 pressure vessel. It is found that the achievable level of the maximum stress pressure of the rotationally autofrettaged vessel is 74.46% higher than that of its nonautofrettaged counterpart for an overstrain level of 46.7%. Copyright © 2021 by ASME.