Time-Dependent Creep Analysis of Rotating Thick Walled Cylindrical Pressure Vessels under Heat Flux

This paper presents a closed-form analytical solution for time-dependent creep stresses and displacements of isotropic and homogeneous rotating thick-walled cylindrical pressure vessels under heat flux. Assuming that the thermoelastic creep response of the material is governed by Norton’s law, using equations of equilibrium, strain-displacement and stress-strain relations, a differential equation for the displacement rate is obtained and then the stress rates are calculated. When the stress rates are known, the stresses at any time are calculated iteratively. The analytical solution is obtained for the conditions of plane strain and plane stress. The thermal loading is as: inner surface is exposed to a uniform heat flux, and the outer surface is exposed to an airstream. Following this, profiles are plotted for the radial stress, circumferential stress and axial stress as a function of radial direction and time for different values of angular velocity. This analytical solution can be used easily to study the dependence of the stresses on time and temperature. The values used in this study are arbitrary chosen to demonstrate the effect of creep on displacements, and stresses distributions.