Design Development of Transnet Pressure Vessel to Mitigate the Problems of Welding Misalignment

This report is a study about the construction, and therefore, particularly the welding processes of pressure vessels. The aim is to improve the process of the construction of pressure vessels to resolve the issue of misalignment in the welding process of the vessels. The focus is on the positioning, preparation, material selected and the overall procedure including the weld types to be used. A theoretical design of a pressure vessel it is compare to a simulated version to find the stress values and positions that may affect the capability of the design of the pressure vessel.Pressure vessels have standards to be followed during construction and evaluation, South African standards state that a contained fluid that is capable to build pressure or contained at a pressure of 50kPa is said to be contained in a pressure vessel. The maximum pressure allowed to be contained is 2413kPa and therefore a relief valve is introduced. The vessel design is regulated between these pressures, the calculations consider the given dimensions of the material used and the focus points are the stresses that would be acting on the vessel.The use of theories of pressure vessels applied provided calculation methods to determine the stresses that would act on the designed pressure vessel, and computer aided drawing simulated to give a stress analysis of the designed pressure vessel. The comparison of the two systems gave us pressures of 345Mpa for ultimate tensile stress, mild steel material was able to sustain the pressure in the simulation with a vessel thickness of 16mm.The calculations gave the relatively expected answers and when considering the standard that are expected for South African pressure vessels. The simulations that were obtained gave a similar poisons ratio but higher stress values and from the simulation the vessel construction did not fail, but there are recommendations made for the support system.The effects of misalignment are challenging and ultimately cause a vessel to fail in the containment of high-pressure fluids, the causes are explained in detail and later possible future solutions and observations.