Verification and Applicability of a Simplified Method for Analyzing Blast Overpressure in Vertical Pressure Vessels

Abstract

A simplified method for analyzing pressure vessel response to blast overpressure incidents was developed in a previous study that demonstrated the ability to apply, evaluate and interpret the results of an overpressure incident on vertical pressure vessels without the use of advanced FEA software. The previous study was primarily focused on the development of the simplified method from existing literature and the step-by-step implementation of the method in an example case. The method itself was only applied to one example case and compared to a control case. This paper will verify the simplified method and determine its applicability by evaluating the response of several different vessels to different overpressure values and comparing the results to control cases performed using the CONWEP model in ABAQUS. The sampling of vessels will be determined by using common vessel diameters with different diameter to length ratios. The simplified method developed in the previous study will also be further refined by the application of Newmark’s Method, which allows for the evaluation of the dynamic response of a system to a time-history loading. Newmark’s Method is an average acceleration scheme that is primarily used in structural analysis to measure seismic response. The results from the analysis, along with a comparison between the data from the simplified method and the control case, will be discussed.