Optimum heating of cylindrical pressure vessels

A method for determining time-optimum fluid temperature changes during heating of the thick walled cylinder was presented. Optimum fluid temperature changes were determined both for the cylindrical pressure vessels without holes. Heating of the hollow cylinder will be carried out in such a way that the circumferential thermal stress at the inner surface is equal to the allowable stress value. Optimum fluid temperature changes were assumed in the form of simple time functions containing unknown parameters. The unknown parameters were determined from the condition that the circumferential thermal stress at the inner surface of the hollow cylinder without holes is equal to the allowable stress at given time points. An over-determined system of nonlinear algebraic equations was solved for unknown parameters using the least squares method. At first, the thermal stress was calculated using the discrete form of the Duhamel integral. The Finite Element Method (FEM) was used to determine the circumferential thermal stress in the second method. For practical reasons the optimum temperature in the ramp form is preferred. It is possible to increase the fluid temperature stepwise at the beginning of the heating process and then increase the fluid temperature with the constant rate. Because of the possibility of practical implementation a more appropriate is the ramp function for approximating optimum fluid temperature changes.