Honors College Theses

Publication Date

5-6-2021

Major

Mechanical Engineering (B.S.)

Document Type and Release Option

Thesis (restricted to Georgia Southern)

Faculty Mentor

Aniruddha Mitra

Abstract

Pressure vessels are used in a variety of industries for storing fluids needed by said industries. Industrial-sized pressure vessels are sometimes left outside of facilities rather than inside of them due to spacing issues. Tall structures such as vertical pressure vessels are susceptible to failure due to resonance between its natural frequency and the frequency of vortex shedding formed from wind. It was proposed that the natural frequency of a vertical pressure vessel could be increased by decreasing its leg lengths, thereby making it more difficult to achieve resonance. For the purpose of testing this hypothesis, 2 different pressure vessel types were used: a 50 ft3 model and a 200 ft3 model. Using SolidWorks, true-scale 3D models of the pressure vessels were generated. Each model type then had their leg lengths decreased in increments of 1 inch up to 4 inches in total. Using ANSYS, each model was subjected to modal analysis to observe the change in natural frequency based upon the changed leg lengths. Based upon the finding of these simulations, the natural frequency of the vertical pressure vessel does increase as the leg length decreases. With every 1 inch reduction in leg length, the natural frequency of the pressure vessel rises by less than 2% (around 1.9% for the 50 ft3 vessel and around 1.7% for the 200 ft3 vessel).

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Available for download on Wednesday, April 29, 2026

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