scope:

WRC Bulletin 537 is intended to facilitate implementation of the widely required and used relations found in the March 1979 revision of WRC Bulletin 107 for local stresses in spherical and cylindrical shells due to external loadings. The original analytical and experimental work of WRC's Pressure Vessel Research Council has become an essential tool for pressure vessel design for 45 years and in its present form for over 30 years. WRC Bulletin 537 has been prepared in response to numerous requests over the years for the precise equations depicted in the figures given in WRC Bulletin 107 (1979 Edition). The objective was to eliminate potential errors in implementation, facilitate proper interpolation and extrapolation and permit efficient computation with modern computers.

Mike Straub offered WRC his work at digitizing the numerous curves found in WRC Bulletin 107. David A. Osage organized the extensive effort to precisely capture the details of each curve in every single figure and develop the complex mathematical relations which render the new document useful for modern engineering practice. The effort and assuring the accuracy of the results required a great deal of time and attention to details. Involved in developing the equations and checking the results on Dave Osage's team were Mary Buchheim, David Amos, Tiffany Shaughnessy, and Debbie Samodell.

Welding Research Council, Inc. will no longer deliver WRC Bulletin 107 when requested for purchase. WRC Bulletin 537 provides the same content in a more useful and clearer format and is not an update or revision of WRC Bulletin 107. Instead, it is the 2010 printing of WRC Bulletin 107 and has been meticulously checked. Those responsible for codes, standards and specifications that require use of WRC Bulletin 107 should amend those documents to reflect the fact that WRC Bulletin 537 is the equivalent to WRC Bulletin 107 and provides the same acceptable basis for design.

Since the 2010 Edition of WRC Bulletin 537 three Errata's have been issued. The third Errata issued on August 19, 2011 was accumulative and comprised of the first and second Errata's issued on, respectively, April 2011 and June 27, 2011.

WRC Bulletin 537 2nd Edition, published in October 2020, replaces previous versions of WRC Bulletin 537 as well as the first, second and third Errata. WRC Bulletin 537 2nd Edition is all-inclusive.