Re: gas container

["JACK L. URETSKY (C)1998; HEP DIVISION, ARGONNE NATIONAL LAB ARGONNE, IL 60439" <JLU@hep.anl.gov>]

Hi all-
	From a former aero engineer:
	Answers to questions like this can be found in engineering handbooks,
such as the Mechanical Engineering Handbook.
	My physicist analysis, in the meantime, is that the spherical shell is
under tension.  Draw any circumference (great circle) to divide the shell in
half.  The total force on a half-shell, perpendicular to the plane of the circle,
is just the pressure times the projected area: F= p*pi*r^2, r being the radius.
The force per unit length of shell is F divided by 2pi*r, so if t is the shell
thickness, then the stress is  s =pr/2t.  The stress should be less than the
yield stress of the metal, and handbooks tell you how big a safety factor to
apply to your calculation.
				Regards,
					Jack

> > > Suppose that a spherical shell of thickness d is used to contain a
> > > gas whose pressure is given, for example, 100 or 100,000 atm.
> > > What is the necessary value of d for steel?...
> Any mechanical engineer (or a physicist, chemist, etc.) to help us?


	"I scored the next great triumph for science myself,
to wit, how the milk gets into the cow.  Both of us
had marveled over that mystery a long time.  We had
followed the cows around for years - that is, in the
daytime - but had never caught them drinking fluid of
that color."
		Mark Twain, Extract from Eve's
		Autobiography