Strength of materials(longitudal stress in thin cylindrical shells

Click For Summary

Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the longitudinal stress in thin cylindrical shells, specifically addressing the derivation of the area used in stress calculations and the assumptions made in engineering practices. Participants explore the implications of using different areas for calculating stress and the validity of these assumptions in the context of thin-walled cylinders.

Discussion Character

  • Technical explanation
  • Debate/contested
  • Mathematical reasoning

Main Points Raised

  • One participant questions the derivation of the area (π × d × t) used for calculating longitudinal stress, suggesting that it should include additional terms (π × d × t + t × t).
  • Another participant argues that the method should consider the force projected on the circumference rather than the cross-sectional area, indicating a potential misunderstanding of stress calculations.
  • A participant assumes that for thin shells, the area can be approximated as π × d × t, suggesting that this approximation is sufficient for the problem at hand.
  • Clarifications are made regarding the definitions of variables, with one participant specifying that d is the inside diameter and t is the wall thickness, and questioning whether using wall area would yield a more accurate result.
  • One participant emphasizes the importance of assumptions in engineering, noting that while a thick-walled solution may be more accurate, it complicates calculations and may not significantly improve accuracy.
  • Another participant discusses the real area calculation, stating that it is the difference between two circles' areas and that for small t compared to d, the approximation holds.
  • Further questions arise about the derivation of the area formula and its applicability to crushing stresses, with one participant concluding that the derived formula may still apply under certain conditions.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express differing views on the appropriateness of using the area π × d × t versus a more complex calculation involving wall area. There is no consensus on the best approach or the implications of the assumptions made in the calculations.

Contextual Notes

Participants note that the assumptions regarding the thinness of the cylinder and the definitions of the variables are critical to the discussion. The validity of using approximations versus exact calculations remains unresolved.

oom kaaspaas
Messages
5
Reaction score
0
In Rc Stephen's book Strength op materials, the longitudinal stress in a cylinder(see) attachment caputure.jpeg. My question is how is the area(pi X d X t ) is derived as my calculations show that this area should equate to (pi x d x t + t x t)
 

Attachments

  • Capture.JPG
    Capture.JPG
    4.9 KB · Views: 1,009
Engineering news on Phys.org
the method used is the force projected on the circumference instead of the cross sectional area. From what I can gather this is wrong as the stress involved is Force dived by the cross sectional area.
 
I assume that d is the average diameter of the shell and t is its thickness.If the shell is thin (as in the title) then the area is approximately equal to pidt and I'm assuming that an approximate answer is good enough for this particular problem.
 
Thanks for your timely response and sorry for not spesifying. p is the atmospheric pressure,d is the inside diameter(thus excluding the thickness of the cylinder wall) and t is the thickness of the before mentioned wall. It is a valid point that as this is a thin cylinder the circumference rather than the wall area may be used. As such would using the wall area not be more accurate. if so what would such an equation be. My question is in regard to the stress created by a force tending to separate the left and right halves of the cylinder and as such is called longitudal stress as the direction of the stress is in the direction of the force. My second question is how was this formula pi x d x t derived
 
Last edited:
You stated the 'answer' to your own question in the thread title. Engineering is about making good assumptions. It's assumed that the cylinder is 'thin'.

In this case it's assumed that all the load is taken on the circuference, as you say you can use a thick walled solution (which modells the problem more accurately), it's more difficult to solve and the answers are likely to be similar. You will probably find a caveat in the book saying this is valid only when D > 10 or 20T


Say for example, that solving a full stress equation by hand takes you 10 minutes and you get an answer of 100. You could have applied an assumption and solved the problem in 5 minutes and get an answer of 95. Meaning the assumption loses you about 5% accuracy. Before doing this you need to ask yourself is the extra 5% accuracy really worth 100% extra calcualtion time.
 
The real area is equal to the area of the circle of diameter equal to d+2t minus the area of the circle of diameter equal to d and it would be more accurate to use the real area.If,however, t is small compared to d then the area is approximately equal to pidt and I assume from the title of the thread that it is acceptable to use this approximate value.
 
Thanks it makes sense, I still have two more questions on the subject namely how was piXDxT derived and can I use the same equation if there were a force tending to crush the cylinder asuming the t is reasonably smaller than d
 
Last edited:
I found the answer to my own question referring to how pi x D x T was derived. The full equation is pi x D x T + pi x T x T and as t is assumed to be small, T xT would be minute.
Now only the question if this equation holds for crushing stresses remains and I assume that it will.
 

Similar threads

  • · Replies 16 ·
Replies
16
Views
3K
  • · Replies 3 ·
Replies
3
Views
2K
  • · Replies 2 ·
Replies
2
Views
2K
Replies
14
Views
3K
Replies
5
Views
1K
Replies
2
Views
3K
  • · Replies 1 ·
Replies
1
Views
2K
Replies
4
Views
4K
  • · Replies 12 ·
Replies
12
Views
10K
  • · Replies 9 ·
Replies
9
Views
4K