FEM-aided Design of Welded Pressure Vessels According to ASME BPVC Regulations

The article presents the historical background and a brief introduction to the American ASME BPVC regulations concerned with welded boilers, pressure vessels and nuclear facilities. The article presents a methodology for the design of two-shell tube welded pressure vessel (autoclave) based on ASME Sec. VIII Div. 1 regulations. Due to the lack of a computational method (calculation based on formulas) for the complete pressure vessel according to ASME Sec. VIII, Div. 1, related calculations were performed using a computational method according to ASME Sec. VIII, Div. 2 Part 5. The results of the calculations are presented in the form of tables, graphs and numerically generated visualisation.