Aluminum pressure vessels with finite element method fatigue analysis

The designs of pressure vessels must meet basic health and safety requirements according to the Pressure Vessels Regulation. In the regulation, the conditions of placing pressure vessels on the market and the principles of market surveillance and inspection have been determined. In this study, Fatigue Analysis was carried out by Finite Element Method (SEM) on Steel and Aluminium LPG tanks with a volume of 70 liters, which can reach a temperature of 50 °C, under a maximum pressure of 7 bar, considering the operating conditions. In pressure vessel calculations, a Torispheric dished type tank was designed with an outer diameter of 400mm, a total body length of 600mm, and taking the EN-AW-5083 (EN485-2:2007) material as reference. For the static analysis, the most critical conditions were determined and applied in both tanks. Under the most critical conditions, fatigue was observed in both tanks under the same conditions and based on the same load repetitions. As a result of the study, the resistance of an aluminium pressure vessel against fatigue and the pressure vessels produced from steel-based material were compared, analyses were made for both tanks under the same conditions and the analysis results were compared.