Effect of stress stiffness on elastic-plastic strain range

Many pressure vessel and piping components have to withstand high internal pressures and are therefore thick-walled so that geometric effects such as stress stiffening need not be accounted for. However, thin-walled or moderately thick structures may be sensitive to these effects. Design Codes such as the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code usually provide little guidance on when they are to be accounted for. In the opinion of the authors, this effect deserves more attention. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to illuminate the effect of stress stiffening by investigating some examples, with particular attention to elastic-plastic strain ranges and the plastic strain range enhancement factor K-e used for fatigue analyses.