Can we model and analyse buried pressure vessels using PV Elite? Does it take into consideration the soil pressure and the thermal stress induced in the vessel wall due to temperature changes, while in buried condition? Is it possible in PV Elite to apply wind load (for eg -25 % of the deisgn wind load) only for the hydrostatic test case and omit it for the empty / operating cases, as wind load is not applicable for a buried vessel?

Hi Ranjit,

PVElite cannot model a buried vessel. But, I will point you some features of the software that can help you in this case.

Can you model the soil pressure as external pressure on an element?

In Wind load input you can specify your wind code and indicate the percentage of wind to be applied in the test condition. To remove the wind load from the operating condition, you will have to modify the load cases. Go to the Load cases tab (in the 2005 version) or to Design/Analysis Constraints screen (in 2004 and earlier versions) and press the F1 key (on your keyboard) with your cursor in a Load case input field, to invoke the online help. This will explain the meaning of the various keywords in the load case description. Lets take this load case for example,

IP+OW+WI+FW+BW

where,

IP => Internal Pressure
OW => Operating weight
WI => Wind load
FW => Axial Stress due to user applied forces in Wind Cases
BW => Bending Stress due to Lat. Forces for the Wind Case, Corroded

Now, if you want to remove the wind load from this case then just delete the identifier “WI” so the modified load case field will be:

IP+OW+FW+BW

You will have to modify other load cases the same way. You would also remove the identifiers “WE” and “WF” from other load cases.