NETTING ANALYSIS OF COMPOSITE PRESSURE VESSELS

In the cylindrical section of a closed-end pressure vessel, the hoop or the

circumferential stress is twice that of the axial stress. If a homogeneous material with
isotropic properties is used to fabricate a pressure vessel, the material properties are
effectively wasted in the axial direction. The filament winding process alleviates this
problem by allowing the designer to optimize the structure of composite pressure vessels
by placing enough fibers along the hoop direction to withstand the higher stress in this
direction.

The netting analysis is a simple analytical technique used in designing composite

pressure vessels, particularly filament-wound composite pressure vessels. The analysis
establishes the relationship between the stresses resulting in the composite plies of the
pressure vessel and the internal pressure, material properties and processing

parameters. It assumes that all loads are supported by the fibers only and neglects any
contribution from the matrix material and the interaction between fibers. These
assumptions do not cause any significant error in the analysis, as long as the fibers are
primarily loaded in tension and the transverse and shear stresses in the composite plies
are low compared to the ultimate tensile strength of the fibers, . It is also assumed that the
load sharing contribution from the liner is minimal or non-existent.

Consider the cylindrical section of a closed-ended pressure vessel of radius R, subjected

to an internal pressure of p, with x denoting the longitudinal (axial) and y denoting the
hoop (circumferential) direction. It is assumed that the pressure vessel is filament wound
using a combination of hoop and helical windings, the latter at an angle of ? with the
axial direction (x).

Assume that the total thickness of the helical plies is and that of the hoop plies is .
The area of helical fibers intersecting unit length of the surface along the hoop and axial

directions are and .

First, lets balance the force resultants in the axial direction. The contribution of the stress
resultants from the hoop fibers in the axial direction can be neglected. The resolved
components of the force resultants from the helical fibers in the axial direction is

. This needs to be in equilibrium with the force resultant in the composite shell
due to the internal pressure in the axial direction, pR/2.
Second, the force balance in the hoop direction needs to take into consideration a
combination of the hoop and helical fibers. The force resultant in the hoop direction of
the composite shell due to internal pressure is pR.

Combining the two equations of equilibrium,

It is now assumed that the composite shell is designed such that the ultimate strength of

the fibers, is attained simultaneously along the hoop and helical directions at the

vessel’s burst pressure, . The thickness of the hoop and helical plies for the composite
pressure vessel can be estimated from the following equations:

Therefore, for a pressure vessel with a design burst pressure of , the netting analysis
estimates the total thickness of the composite shell in its cylindrical section to be

. This calculation does not include any consideration of factor of safety.