A novel plastic limit load solution for the orthotropic cylindrical shell with nozzle under internal pressure

Predicting the plastic limit load precisely is crucial for the design and reliability assessment of complicated structures. Cylindrical shell structure with nozzle fabricated with anisotropy material has been widely used in pressurized equipment. This study is devoted to developing a plastic limit load expression to capture the effect of anisotropy of materials on the plastic limit load of cylindrical shell with nozzle under internal pressure. In the proposed expression, the effects of four dimensionless parameters including diameter to thickness ratio, opening ratio, wall thickness ratio and yield strength ratio on the plastic limit load of the orthotropic cylindrical shell with nozzle were comprehensively considered. To verify the predictive ability of the proposed plastic limit load expression, finite element results, traditional Cloud-Rodabaugh expression's results and burst test results were compared with the proposed expression's results. It reveals that the predicted results of the proposed expression are in good agreement with experimental data, indicating the proposed expression is robust in describing the plastic limit load variation under different geometries of cylinder and nozzle.