Dome Shape Design and Performance Evaluation of Composite Pressure Vessel

Dome shape design methods of Filament Winding (FW) composite pressure vessel, which can suggest various dome contour according to the external loading conditions, were investigated analytically and numerically. The performance indices(PV/W) of the pressure vessels with same cylinder radius and boss opening but different dome shape were evaluated by finite element analysis under the internal pressure loading condition. The analysis results showed that as the dome shape becomes flat, the performance index decreases significantly due to the reduced burst pressure. Especially, for the case of the high value of the parameter ro, the ratio between the radii of the cylinder part and the boss opening, the flat dome is disadvantageous in the aspect of the weight reduction, and additional reinforcing dome design technique should be required to increase the burst pressure. For example, above ro=0.54 condition, the dome shape change according to the loading condition could cause the low burst pressure and increase of composite weight in dome region and is not recommendable except for the special case that maximum inner volume or sufficient space between skirt and dome is the primary design objective. However, at ro=0.35, the dome shape change brings not so significant differences in the performance of FW vessel.