An investigation of stress factors for a circular hole in a cylindrical shell

Circular cut-outs in cylindrical shells are a common design element in many areas of mechanical engineering. These holes can be for required inspection hatchways in a pipeline or for the access of piping. In these cases, membrane and bending stresses are developed at the edge of the hole and develop perturbations further away from the edge of the hole. In a previous paper by one of the authors, finite element and laboratory tests were carried out on three cylindrical shells [1]. These tests included axial compression, torsion and three point bending on each cylindrical shell. The laboratory tests were conducted using steel cylindrical shells of radius 133.5 mm, length of approximately 1850 mm, with each shell having a single circular hole of a radius, of 62.86 mm, 126.49 mm or 196.01 mm. In the present research presented in this paper the theoretical and experimental results from the previous work are considered and assessed. Due to the advances in computer hardware and software, the authors use both three dimensional finite elements and shell elements to appraise the previous results.