Experimental Investigation Of Effect Of Angular Positioning Of Legs On Structural Stability Of Pressure Vessel And By Using Non- Linear Finite Element Analysis

The intention of the pressure vessel-reactor is to have production of phenol and acetone by cumene process which is an industrial process of producing phenol (C6H5-OH) and acetone (CH3-CO-CH3) from benzene (C6H6) and propene (C3H6). The term stems from isopropyl benzene or cumene (C6H5-CH (CH3)2), the intermediate material during the process. The pressure vessel is being designed to implement the Cumene Process. The process is extremely sensitive to pressure and temperature conditions and requires a lot of control systems to monitor it. These control systems are to be placed below the vessel for effective monitoring. The current range of Pressure Vessels in the market of ‘AZ’ series come either in skirt support or supported by 8 legs equidistance from each other. However, a custom made pressure vessel has been ordered for the cumene process. The custom made vessel has to have a lot of controls for the cumene process; hence 8 legs are not feasible. Six legs support with a nonsymmetric distribution was tried out initially. In this paper, the current requirement is to have more floor space. And to simulate the structure for wind load and verify for the safe condition. Hence, it is decided to improvise on the design and introduce angular supports. It has an advantage of increased floor space to mount the controls. The results show that the effect of 6 leg support on the structural stability of pressure vessel behavior is noticeable in optimum design and minimum deformation and minimum stress will be find out for the Cumene Process of the pressure vessel.