A new mechanical model for rectangular structures subjected to internal pressure

Abstract For a rectangular vessel with short axial length the design equations derived from rigid frame theory are conservative. Therefore a new mechanical model and closed form formulae for analysing a rectangular vessel are proposed in this paper. For a rectangular vessel with a larger aspect ratio the results from the new model are in agreement with those from the ASME Code formulae. For the case with low aspect ratio, moment parameters (which are the simplified forms of the developed formulae) are presented to meet design needs.