PROCESS EQUIPMENT DESIGN

Design Of Vessel’s Head And

Closures
Contents :

• Introduction

• Pressure Vessel Components

• Heads And Closures

• Design Of Heads
 Introduction
•Pressure vessels are used in many industries (e.g., hydrocarbon
processing, chemical, power, pharmaceutical, food and beverage).
•The mechanical design of most pressure vessels is done in
accordance with the requirements contained in the ASME(founded as
the American Society For Mechanical Engineers) Boiler and Pressure
Vessel Code, Section VIII.
What is a pressure vessel ?
• A pressure vessel is a closed container designed to hold gases
or liquids at a pressure substantially different from the ambient
pressure.
 Main Pressure Vessel Components

• Pressure vessels are containers for fluids that are under pressure.
They are used in a wide variety of industries (e.g., petroleum
refining,
chemical, power, pulp and paper, food, etc.) . The main components of
pressure vessel are:
1. Shell :
•The shell is the primary component that contains the
pressure. Pressure vessel shells are welded together to form a structure
that has a common rotational axis.
•Most pressure vessel shells are either cylindrical, spherical,
2. Head :
All pressure vessel shells must be closed at the ends by heads (or
another shell section).
Heads are typically curved rather than flat.
-Curved configurations are stronger and allow the heads to be thinner,
lighter, and less expensive than flat heads.
-Heads can also beused inside a vessel.These “intermediate heads”
separate sections of the pressure vessel to permit different design conditions in
each section.

3. Nozzle :
A nozzle is a cylindrical component that penetrates the shell or heads of a
pressure vessel. The nozzle ends are usually flanged to allow for the necessary
connections and to permit easy disassembly for maintenance or access. Nozzles are
used for the following applications:
· Attach piping for flow into or out of the vessel.
· Attach instrument connections, (e.g., level gauges, thermowells, or pressure
gauges).
· Provide access to the vessel interior at man ways.
· Provide for direct attachment of other equipment items, (e.g., a heat exchanger
or mixer).

4. Support :

•The type of support that is used, depends primarily on the size and orientation of
the pressure vessel.
•In all cases, the pressure vessel support must be adequate for the applied weight,
wind, and earthquake loads.
•The design pressure of the vessel is not a consideration in the design of the
support since the support is not pressurized.
•Temperature may be a consideration in support design from the standpoint of
material selection and provision for differential thermal expansion.
Vertical Drum
 End Closure in Pressure Vessels

• Closing end of the pressure vessel is called as End closure. Also it

is
referred as Manhole.

• Types of End closure are:

• Flat Heads
• Formed Head

The heads are either welded or bolted with the main vessel
shell
 Flat heads

•For larger vessels or at higher pressure, the flat head cover will be
too bulky, otherwise, it will tend to collapse.
•From fabrication point of view this is the simplest type head to
construct just cutting a circular piece from a flat plate.
•As a result, for a particular diameter and operating conditions,
materials cost for flat head is maximum, though fabrication cost is
very low.
 Flat heads di

th

• The flat heads or plates are the simplest type of end closure used
only
for small diameter vessels.

• They are also used as manhole covers in low pressure vessels and as
covers for small openings.
• The thickness of the flat head is given by,

•
th  0.7di 
th = thickness of head Pi
• di = inner dia of vessel shell C
• pi = design pressure, N/mm2 
σ = allowable tensile stress, N/mm2
•
• C=
•Thickness
•Localized stresses
•Can be used for low pressure services upto 1.5kg/cm2

Limitations
 Formed Head

• The formed heads, which are commonly used in pressure vessel, are
commonly used in pressure vessels, are normally fabricated from a
single circular flat plate by forming.

• Different types of formed head are :

1. Plain formed head

2. Torispherical Dished Head
3. Elliptical Dished Head or semi ellipsoidal heads
4. Hemispherical Head
5. Conical head
Flanged only/ Flat Head Design
 Formed Head:
•
Plain
The plain head formed head are used for
horizontal cylindrical storage vessels at
atmospheric pressure.

• They are also used for the bottom ends

of vertical cylindrical vessels that rest on
concrete slabs and do not have diameter
in excess of 7 meters.

• The thickness of the plain formed head is

given by,
Pi 
th  0.4di 
C

• th = thickness of head, mm
• ric = inner corner radius, mm ≥ 𝑜 . 1di
• Sf = straight flange length, mm = 3 th or 20 which ever is greater
FLAT HEAD PRESSURE VESSEL
(b) Flanged Shallow Dished and Flanged Standard Dished (Tori
spherical) Heads :
While pressing into dished shape, such heads
consist of two radii, namely "crown“ radius and “knuckle" radius.

• Flanged shallow dished: Crown radius > Shell outer diameter

• Flanged Standard dished: Crown radius ≤ Shell outer diameter

•Due to small Knuckle(small inside-corner) radius localised stresses are

very high and do not serve the code requirement.
Flanged Shallow Dished Head
Flanged Standard Dished Head
Making Of Torispherical Head
 Formed Head: Torsional Dished
head
• The torispherical dished heads are used
for vertical or horizontal pressure vessel
or horizontal pressure vessel in the
pressure range from 0.1 N/mm2 or 1.5
N/mm2

• These type of heads are shaped by using

two radii : the dish radius or crown radius
(Rc) & inner corner radius or knuckle
radius (ric)

• The thickness of the torispherical dished

head is given by,

W pi
th C Where, W  1 3  Rc 

 Rc 2  j 4
R

(c) Elliptical dished Heads :
Elliptical Dished Heads are formed on dies in
which the diametrical cross-section is an ellipse. Most of the
standard elliptical dished heads are manufactured on 2:1 ratio of
major to minor axis.
• These type of heads are generally
recommended in the pressure range of 0.7 MN/m2 and preferably
for the vessels designed to operate above 1.5 MN/m2.
• The strength of such heads is
approximately equal to strength of seamless cylindrical shell
having corresponding inside and outside diameters.
Elliptical Dished Head
Elliptical Dished Head
 Formed Head: Semi-Elliptical
head
• The Semi-elliptical dished heads are used for
pressure vessels above 1.5 N/mm2 pressure.
The ratio of the major axis to the minor axis is
generally taken as 2.

• The thickness of the semi-elliptical dished

head is given by,
W pi dc
th 2j 
C


Where, W
1
2 
6
(K 1)
• Sf = 3 t h
2
or 20 mm, Whichever is
greater
(d) Hemispherical Heads :
A hemisphere is the ideal shape for a head, because the
pressure in the vessel is divided equally across the surface of the
head.
• Small hemispherical heads are made by spinning, but
large heads are fabricated by welding pressed plate sections in the
shape of a crown and petals, or by forging.
• These heads can be used to resist approximately twice
the pressure rating of an elliptical head or cylindrical shell of same
thickness and diameter.
Hemispherical Head
Making Of A Large Hemispherical
 Formed Head: Hemispherical
head

• The hemispherical head are strongest of all the

formed heads. They are free from dis-
continuties and hence used in high pressure
vessels.

• The thickness of the semi-elliptical dished

head is given by,

pi di
th 4f j
 C


• Sf = 3 t h or 20 mm, Whichever is
greater
(e) Conical Heads and Reducers :

Conical heads are used as bottom for a

variety of process equipment like evaporators, spray driers,
crystallizers, settling tanks, silos etc.

• The particular advantage lies in the

accumulation and removal of solids from such equipment.
• Another common application of conical
head is a reducer, providing a smooth transition between two parts
of different diameter in cylindrical process vessel.
Conical Head
Making Of A Conical Head
 Formed Head: Conical
Head
• The Conical heads are widely used as
bottom heads to facilitate the removal
or draining of the material.

• The semicore angle is usually taken

as
300.

• The thickness of the semi-elliptical

p d
dished head is giveni by,i
th 2 j cos 
 C

• Sf = 3 t h or 20 mm, Whichever is
greater
 Tutorial 1
Design heads for a pressure vessel having following specifications-

•Design pressure of - 8 kg/cm2

•Diameter of vessel- 2m
•Permissible stress-1280 kg/cm2
•Weld joint efficiency – 85%

Following heads are required to be designed with final layout in the form of
CAD/paper drawing-
•Flat formed head
•Torispherical head [100-6] and [80-10]
•Elliptical head
•Hemispherical head
 Stress Analysis And Design Of heads
1) Flat Cover Head :
The stress analysis flat cover head is made on
the basis of bending of uniformly loaded circular plates of constant
thickness.
CASE- I : when edges of plates are assumed to be
clamped preventing it from rotating only and not otherwise restrained,
i.e. there is no strain in the neutral plane of the plate.
• In this case there are negative end bending moments.

CASE-II : When edges are consider to be freely supported, thus

eliminating the edge bending moment.
General Deflection Equation
For Uniformly loaded circular plate, general deflection equation
is
given by:

(1)

In the above equation:

p = load intensity (say pressure)
x = Distance of any part of plate under consideration from centre,
D = flexural rigidity of
plate t = thickness of the
plate,
µ = Poisson‟s ratio,
C1,C2,C3 = Constants of
For Case-I: When edges of circular plates are clamped, the
equation of deflection is:
( 2)

Where : R= radius of the plate at the point of support.

• Maximum deflection is at the centre of plate (x = 0) equal to
(3)

•If Mr and Mθ are bending moment per unit length caused by

pressure and Mr acts along cylindrical sections and Mθ along
diametrical sections of plate, then,
(4)

(5)
Moments at the edge of the plate is obtained by substituting x = R,
(6)

(7)
Similarly, by substituting x = 0 in eq. 4 & 5 , the moments at the
centre are obtained as follows:
(8)

eq. 6,7,&8 shows that expression for maximum moment is given by

eq. 6. This indicates that the maximum stress is at the edge of the
plate and equals to:

(9)
For Case- II : When the edges of a uniformly loaded cylinder plate
is simple supported the deflection equation becomes:
(10)

At x = 0, maximum deflection at the centre becomes,

(11)

Bending moment equations are:

(12)
(13)
 The maximum bending occurs at the centre
where,
(14)

And corresponding maximum stress is:

(15)

In Eqs. 9 & 15, if ̔σmax‟ is substituted by allowable stress „f‟ of

the material and „R‟ is replaced by D0/2, where D0 is the effective
diameter of the flat head, a general expression for calculating the
thickness of flat heads and covers obtained:
(16)

Where, C: factor depending upon the method of attachment to

 Eq. 16 is given in IS : 2825-1969 for calculating the flat
head thickness.
•Following are the few case where C values are indicated (IS: 2825-
1969).

1. Flanged flat heads butt welded to shell. D0 = Di ; C = 0.45.

2. Plates welded to inside of the shell , D0 = Di ; C ≥ .55

3. Plates welded to the end of the shell (no inside welding).
D0 = Di ; C = 0.7.

4. Plates welded to the end of the shell with and additional fillet
on the inside. D0 = Di ; C = 0.55.
5. Covers riveted or bolted to the end of shell with an additional
fillet weld on the inside. D0 = Bolt-circle diameter; C = 0.42.

6. Covers with narrow face bolted flange joint, i.e., gasket is

placed within bolt holds. D0 = mean diameter of gasket ;

Where, FBis the bolt load

and hG= ½(bolt circle diameter - D0)
2) Conical Head : Geometry of cone may be compared with that of a
cylinder in which diameter is continuously changing.

R: radius of curvature of the

element in the hoop direction
( i. e. perpendicular to meridian)
r: radius of cone at the same
reference point
R = r / cosα

Thickness of the cone is:

(16)

Where : Dk is inside diameter of cone at the position

under consideration.
Stresses in a Conical Head
•From the consideration of stress analysis, a cone is divided into two
regions:

(a) Region around knuckle or junction not exceeding a distance,

(De t/cosα)1/2 , from the junction or knuckle, where De is the
outer diameter of conical section or end.

(b) Region away from knuckle or junction.

•The inward compressive force produced by the conical head is

given by,

Where: P is axial tension in the shell per unit shell circumference.

• If T is axial tension in the cone due to internal pressure,
at equilibrium,
P = T cos α, and C = T sin α = P tan α = (pD/4) tan
α.

As a result of this compressive force, it is impossible to design a

conical head to eliminate moment and shear at the junction. A factor
Z is taking into account the influence of this discontinuity stresses
is therefore introduced into the basic thin-shell equation to
determine the thickness of the cone at the junction or knuckle,

For a cone, Z depends upon apex angle and knuckle radius, Z

values for a sharp cone (without knuckle radius) are given below:
α = 20̊ 30̊ 45̊ 60̊
Z= 1.00 1.35 2.05 3.2
•Equations for surface area and volumetric capacity of a conical
head are given by:
AJay