Abstract

Background: Functionally graded material (FGM) is popularly recognized as promising material for modern engineering applications, which has gained attention of researchers due to its composition design and mechanical behaviour. FGM is the most suitable choice as a structural material for conical pressure vessel and requires detailed analysis for its mechanical behaviour.

Objective: The design optimization of the rotating truncated conical shell made from FGM subjected to internal pressure (variable and constant) using Finite Element Method.

Methods: Using a commercially available finite element code, the effect of various parameters (such as cone angle, internal pressure, and angular velocity) on truncated conical shell was analyzed. The material properties and composition vary along the radial direction according to the exponential function.

Results: Under the chosen circumstances 10⁰ cone angle, 4-12MPa internal pressure, and 50 rad/sec rotational velocity were found most suitable.

Conclusion: The results also demonstrated that chosen parameters (such as, cone angle, internal pressure, and rotational velocity) significantly affect the stresses working on conical shell. This requires careful selection while designing the conical pressure vessel. These optimization results are helpful for research community to design a conical shell pressure vessel using FGM.

Keywords: Finite element analysis, functionally graded materials, conical shell, exponential gradient, radial stresses, circumferential stresses.