Experimental studies on bursting pressure of thin-walled flow formed pressure vessels

The design of pressure vessels for critical high-pressure applications has to consider two failure modes. The first mode of failure can occur when deformation becomes excessive and permanent deformation might occur. The second type of failure occurs at higher magnitudes of pressure resulting in bursting of tubes and catastrophic failure. Hence predicting the bursting pressure of thrust chambers is an important consideration in their design and gives a more realistic indication of the factor of safety than the value that can be provided based on the yield pressure value. The burst pressure gives an indication of the margin of safety available over the maximum expected operating pressure (MEOP). The assessment of burst pressure is very important for pressure vessels which are used for critical applications. In this paper an attempt has been made to study the suitability of the burst pressure prediction formula available in literature and its modification for thin-walled high strength pressure vessels manufactured by a flow forming technique.