scope:

The state of the art of pressure vessel design has recently been summarized by Langer. He discussed the different types of pressure vessel heads, the main characteristics of each type, and the relative validity of the ASME Code rules that pertain to each type. It was shown that present code rules are, in general, overly conservative for thick-walled heads, and in some cases, unconservative for thinwalled heads. Regarding the latter statement Shield and Drucker,2 writing in 1959, stated that a certain class of ASME Code torispherical vessels were "positively unsafe." On the same subject, Galletly warned of the inadequacy of codedesigned thin-walled torispherical heads in 1956. A revision of the ASME Code for Design of Pressure Vessel Heads is definitely in order. The purpose of the present report is to comment briefly on recent research developments, to give specific proposals and suggestions for future research work, and to suggest a philosophy of design which can lead to a more rational and uniform Code for pressure vessel heads.