Design and Analysis of a Butt Welded Pressure Vessel Reactor

Abstract

This article focused on the analysis of butt welded joints of a carbon

steel pressure vessels reactor under certain conditions to determine

a safe operating condition of the system. ANSYS was used to simulate

and evaluate the butt welded joints. The welds were analyzed under

load, thermal and fluid flow conditions so as to determine the

optimum condition under which the welds and system may deform or

become compromised. Results showed that the values of induced

stress and strain obtained under a thermal load of 160MPa were

610.10MPa and 0.0069, respectively. In addition, the maximum

principal stress and strain-induced on the butt welded joints under

160 MPa load condition were 1.096x105 MPa and 0.445,

respectively. It was observed that the deformation on the system due

to residual stresses developed around the heat affected zone of the

butt weld would not cause the system to fail.