Finite element analysis of cylindrical pressure vessels having a misalignment in a circumferential joint

Finite element analysis (FEA) has been carried out to obtain the elastic stress distribution at cylinder-to-cylinder junction in pressurized shell structures that have applications in space – vehicle design. To validate the finite element modeling and analysis results, three joint configurations, (viz., unfilleted butt joint with equal thickness, unfilleted butt joint with unequal thickness and filleted butt joint with equal thickness) having test results in open literature were considered. The peak stress values for these configurations obtained from FEA are close to that of test results. The peak stress value is found to reduce due to filleted butt joint as expected and also confirmed through test results.