Finite Element Analysis of

A. Chaaban Residual Stresses in Threaded

Associate Professor.
U. Muzzo
Research Assistant.
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Ecole Polytechnique of Montreal,
Montreal, Canada
End Closures
Due to the high stress concentration at the root of the first active thread in threaded
end closures of high pressure vessels, yielding may occur in this region during the
application of the first pressure cycle or proof testing. This overstraining introduces
residual stresses that influence the fatigue performance of the vessel. This paper
presents a parametric analysis of threaded end closures using elastic and elasto-
plastic finite element solutions. The results are used to discuss the influence of these
residuals on the estimated fatigue life when the vessel is subjected to repeated internal
pressure. A simple empirical method to allow for the Bauschinger effect of the
material is also proposed.

Introduction
In recent years, a significant development has been per-
formed in the elastic analysis of threaded end closures [1-7].
The effect of residual stresses on the fatigue performance of
these vessels has been always ignored. One of the major reasons
is the great difficulty in determining the real values of these
residuals in such a complex geometry.
On the other hand, the existing fatigue analysis procedure
in Division 2, Section VIII of the ASME Code [8] does not
recognize the beneficial effect of residual stresses on the fatigue
performance of the vessel. Burns et al. [9] have investigated
this problem and proposed a fatigue design procedure that
could be used for autofrettaged and nonautofrettaged vessels.
In this paper, elasto-plastic analyses of several geometries
of a threaded vessel will be performed in order to determine
the spread of the plastic zone in the thread region under proof
testing or under the first application of the design pressure.
Residual stresses that are introduced in this region will be
calculated by assuming a linear behavior of the material during
unloading. However, the Bauschinger effect will be taken into
consideration by using an empirical method which is based on
the equivalent accumulated plastic deformation during the
loading phase of the material and the equivalent Mises stress
after unloading.
The modified fatigue procedure that has been proposed by
Burns et al. [9] for the ASME Code will be used to discuss
the effect of residual stresses caused by overstraining the threads
on their fatigue life performance.
Stress Analysis
The elastic and elasto-plastic finite element methods [10]
Contributed by the Pressure Vessels and Piping Division and presented at the
Pressure Vessels and Piping Conference, Nashville, Tennessee, June 17-21,1990,
of THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS. Manuscript received by
the PVP Division, March 21, 1990; revised manuscript received September 5,
1990.
have been used to investigate the operating and residual stresses
in the critical region of a threaded-end vessel subjected to
internal pressure. Figure 1 shows a typical finite element mesh
for the assumed axisymmetric plane, including the kinematic
and loading conditions. Eight-noded, reduced integration ele-
ments (CAX8R), have been adopted. In the threaded end re-
gion a special contact element (INTER3A) was used in order
to account for the friction between the thread faces of the plug
and the cylinder (a Coulomb friction coefficient of 0.05 was
assumed).
A vessel having a diameter ratio Y - 1.5 and 15 engaged
Buttress threads with a pitch PT = 0.5 in., was chosen to
perform the calculations presented in this paper. Two different
inside radii were considered (R, = 7.5 and 15.0 in.). The num-
ber of threads was fixed to 15, since increasing this number
beyond that limit seems to introduce negligible improvement
in the thread load distribution; see reference [2] for details.
A recent study by Jutras and Chaaban [5] came out with a
general equation for determining maximum normal, Mises and
shear stresses in the thread region. Based on these equations,
the pressure to cause initial yielding at the root of the first
thread can be approximated by the following equation:
S„(PT)(i?,)
(1)
"i.5 /PT\
2.9(tfthr + 0.12
NT \R,J
The pressure to cause initial yielding in the cylindrical part of
the vessel is given by
•1)
r
y (2)
yfl Y2
When ignoring the threaded part of the vessel, the design
pressure (Pd) may be calculated based on the design rules given
in reference [15]. Table 1 presents these typical pressure values

398/Vol. 113, AUGUST 1991 Transactions of the ASME

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 first seal
thread position Table 1 Some important pressure values for the three analyzed cases
P S
case Y Rj(in) V » Pd/S, p'/s, P/Pd

1 1 .5 7.5 0 . 321 0.214 0.098 1 .0

2 1 .5 15.0 0 . 321 0.214 0.050 1 .0

3 1 . 5 7.5 0.321 0.214 0.098 0.565

Table 2 Maximum elastic stress in the threaded region for Cases 1, 2

and 3 of Table 1

case o,/P ' oj/P o8/P °n/s,

1 12.35 1 .08 3.37 2.21

2 24.46 2.15 7.62 4.29

3 12.35 1 .08 3 . 37 1 . 25

— r i i I" i^\

liiiiii/ —
_

t^^r^^^^t^^^^i^t^^ZJ^h^11 —

Fig. 1 Typical finite element model for the plug-cylinder assembly

R, = 7.5 in.

for the three cases analyzed in the present study. The last
column of this table shows the applied internal pressure (P).
In Cases 1 and 2, the applied internal pressure was chosen to
be equal to the vessel design pressure. Since the design pressure
(Pd) is usually independent of the absolute value of the internal
radius, the same applied pressure was considered in both cases.
This will obviously introduce a much higher longitudinal force
on the threads in Case 2 compared to Case 1. In the third case,
the geometry of Case 1 has been reconsidered with an applied
pressure P = 0.565 Pd, which corresponds to 1.25 times the
pressure to cause initial yielding in the the threaded area (P'y).
This choice will be justified later when dealing with the fatigue
problem.
Table 2 shows the maximum principal (au a2, <re) and Mises
(<rM) stresses when assuming elastic behavior of the material.
It can be seen from these results that in all cases yielding takes
place in the threaded area ([aM/Sy] > 1) and residual stress
fields will be created after releasing the pressure. The results
presented in Table 2 will be used later in the discussion of the
fatigue problem.
Assuming elastic-perfectly plastic behavior of the material
with isotropic hardening rules, the finite element method was
used to calculate residual stresses caused by overstraining the
threads during the application of the internal pressure. Figure
nir:;ij"iti::itniinii 111!
i t tt I it IT tit tt j
ji kAUii-L4^ii> t^si^zit^ P;Jt4^83tf
{b) R, = 15.0 in.
Fig. 2 Plastic zone in the thread region of the vessel (V 1.5, P
0.214 Sy)
2 shows the extent of the plastic zone during the loading phase.
Two typical cases are presented. In the first case (Case 1 in
Table 1), a pressure of 0.214 Sy was applied which causes a
plastic flow to initiate in a very local area at the root of the
first two threads (Fig. 2(a)). Apparently, by increasing the
pressure, the plastic flow would more likely be overtaken by
flow along the roots of the remaining threads one after another.
The radial depth of the plastic zone is a very small percentage
of the vessel thickness; this is shown clearly in Fig. 2(b) for
the second case (Case 2 in Table 1) where more damage to the

Nomenclature

NT = no. of threads
PT = pitch dimension mean stress intensity
R, = internal radius of cylinder Su ultimate tensile strength
•#th = internal radius of cylinder at thread root Sy yield stress
•Salt =
alternating stress intensity Y cylinder diameter ratio
"eq =equivalent stress intensity normal stresses
&m =effective mean stress intensity residual normal stresses

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 Table 3 Maximum residual stresses in the threaded area for Cases 1,
2 and 3 of Table 1
linear u n 1 o a d i ng corrected v i l ues reverse
case yielding
°Vs, S
°V V °V s y o*/Sy s
°V y oe/Sy

1 -1.161 -0.124 -0.203 -0.795 -0.085 -0.139 1 .35 yes

2 -1 .335 - 0 . 1 8 0 -0.726 -0.901 -0.122 -0.490 3.96 yes

3 -0.201 0.036 0.098 -0.201 0.036 0.098 0.22 no

Fig. 3 Alternating stress intensity between times U and V

first few threads can be observed and the remaining threads
are still elastic.
As mentioned earlier, after unloading the pressure, the re- The present correction method has been checked with some
sidual stress fields will be calculated based on the assumption experimental data obtained for autofrettaged plain cylinders
of isotropic hardening rules in plasticity. The first three col- and gave very good results. These calculations and comparisons
umns of Table 3 show the maximum residual stresses, erf, o-J will not be shown here in the interest of space.
and a! introduced in the threaded area for the three cases
shown in Table 1. However, due to the high equivalent plastic
deformation ~ep accumulated during the loading phase and due Fatigue Analysis
to the type of material that is often used for high pressure As described by Burns et al. [9], two methods may be used
vessels (quenched and tempered low alloy steels), the Baus- in order to account for the mean stress effect on the fatigue
chinger effect may not be ignored. A simple procedure allowing life of vessels. The first one (method A) is based on the as-
for this effect has been developed. This procedure is presented sumption that fatigue life is a function of alternating and mean
in the following subsection. The corrected values of maximum stress intensities (SaU, Sm), and the second one (method B) is
stresses are given in Table 3 with respect to the yield strength based on the assumption that fatigue life is a function of
of the material. The results presented in Table 2 together with alternating stress intensity and the mean normal stress on the
those presented in Table 3 will be used later to discuss the critical shear plane (Salt, Sm„). In the present analysis, only
fatigue problem of threaded-end closures. method A will be used since the discussion is based on relative
Bauschinger Effect Correction. Methods are available for comparisons of values and effects rather than absolute ones.
allowing for the Bauschinger effect in the calculation of re- During a cyclic pressure loading between some upper and
sidual stresses for autofrettaged cylindrical vessels [11-13]. lower limits, denoted by U and Kon Fig. 3, with or without
These methods are not suitable for noncylindrical geometries. initial stresses, the alternating and mean stress intensities are
Although the numerical finite element technique that has been given by
proposed by the present first author in reference [12] might
be used for the threaded end problem, it has been ignored here
Salt, ij —
{oru-ofu)-{oi,v-°ry) (3)
due to its complexity and to the associated very high computer
expenses. However, a simplified technique will be proposed to
allow for the Bauschinger effect which is based on the Baus- ,
•s" •• =
(o,pu-or)+{oFv-ofv) (4)
chinger Effect Factor "BEF" data given in reference [14] and 2
on the idealization of the stress-strain curves given in reference
[12]. The procedure can be summarized as follows: (5)
where i and j represent two of the three principal directions
(a) At a particular point which undergoes plastic defor- at the critical point of the body; o"u and opV are the operating
mation during loading, the absolute value of the Bauschinger stresses due to the applied internal pressure at times /„ and t„
Effect Factor, I BEF I, must be calculated based on the ac- and a* are the initial stress components. The critical point
cumulated equivalent plastic deformation (ep), [14]. The BEF should be determined based on the maximum range of stress
is defined as the ratio between the yield strengths of unloading intensity which is the controlling parameter in fatigue. Then
and initial loading at that point. These values must be obtained obviously residual stresses should be calculated in the same
experimentally as indicated in reference [14]. point. In some cases, however, selection of a different point
(b) Calculate the absolute value of the ratio between the may lead to other results which might be more critical from
Mises equivalent stress after unloading and the nominal yield the fatigue point of view. This was not the case in the present
stress of the material I aM/Sy I. investigation since all surrounding points have also been
If I aM/Sy I is larger than I BEF I correction is needed checked.
Before applying method A, the effective mean stress intensity
+ IBEFI Smjj must be calculated as explained in reference [9], The
~2 equivalent stress intensity would then be obtained using the
and the correction factor is given by Peterson equation

/ °M
OM
F=
All residual stress components at the considered point should
be multiplied by this factor Fto give the new corrected values.
These corrected values of the three residual principal stresses
are presented in Table 3. It has to be mentioned here that the
Bauschinger effect correction is determined based on purely
static load. This is appropriate since usually residual stresses
are created after the application of the first pressure cycle or
the proof testing or autofrettage. Afterwards, their values will
be added to the mean stresses created by the applied cyclic
loading.
1 ^alt
"->eq — ' (6)
('•D'
Three values of 5eq can be calculated for the three principal
planes. The largest must be used to estimate the fatigue life
of the component. For more details, the reader is suggested
to see reference [9].
As an example, let us assume the following typical material
properties; a yield tensile strength Sy = 110 ksi and an ultimate
tensile strength Su = 125 ksi. The three cases of Table 1 will
be discussed by assuming an operating cyclic pressure (Pa)

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 Table 4 Numerical results of the fatigue analysis of Cases 1, 2 and 3,
considering Sy = 110 ksi and S„ = 125 ksi. DIF (percent) = i<S*q -
S8q)/S„ I* 100.
s
case Pa Pprf Salt i s
ri Sn s
eq s
eq DIF
(psi) Pa (psi ) (psi ) (psi) (psi) (psi ) (psi) (psi) (*)
1 10700 2. 20 60300 -17800 0 60300 49700 60300 80100 24. 1
2 5500 4.27 61300 -24400 0 6 13O0 4870Q 6 1300 80700 24.0
3 10700 1 . 25 60300 34200 34200 60300 49700 71 100 80100 11.2
which is equal to the yield pressure of the threaded end, P'y
(equation (1)). Therefore, the previously applied pressure (P)
for each case presented in Table 1 is considered as a proof
testing (Pprf) in this example. Table 4 shows the ratio of this
proof pressure to the applied cyclic pressure (Ppr{/Pa) for the
three cases. One may notice in Case 3 of Table 4 that the proof
testing pressure was chosen to be 1.25 times the operating
pressure, which is a common practice.
Based on equations (3) and (4), the alternating and mean
values of the stress intensity (Sait, (Sm ) were calculated by
neglecting initial stresses that are caused by the proof testing.
In addition, S'm has been corrected, when necessary, for the
yielding condition (see reference [9]), to give Sm. On the other
hand, the pair (Salt, Sm )*) has been calculated based on equa-
tions (3) and (5) where the effect of the initial stresses, caused
by the proof testing, is included (see Table 3). Again, the
yielding condition has been verified to give an adjusted value
of the mean stress intensity (Sm ) .
Therefore, for each case analyzed in this example, two values
of the equivalent stress intensity, Seq and S*q, were obtained.
The first one, Seq, is based on the pair (S^t, S,„) and the second
one is based on (Sa,t, Sm ). It can be seen from Table 4 that
ignoring the effect of residual stresses in the calculation of the
equivalent stress may underestimate significantly the fatigue
strength of the vessel. For instance, if we use Seq instead of
S*q in the ASME fatigue design curve, to approximate the
fatigue life of the vessel represented by Cases 1, 2 and 3 in
Table 4, we find that the number of cycles to failure may be
underestimated by as much as a factor of 3, 3 and 2, respec-
tively.
Conclusions
Elastic and elasto-plastic finite element methods have been
used to investigate the operating and residual stress fields in-
troduced in the threaded-end area of thick-walled high pressure
vessels. A simple method for allowing for the Bauschinger
effect, in determining residual stress values, is proposed. Three
typical cases have been considered and the results show that
substantial residual stresses (more than 70 percent of the ma-
terial yield strength) may be introduced at the root of the first
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thread after the application of the design or the proof testing
pressure.
Based on the ASME new proposal for fatigue analysis, it
was shown for a typical case, that neglecting residual stresses
in the threaded region may underestimate the fatigue life by
as much as a factor of 3. It has to be mentioned, however,
that the extent of the plastic flow was found to be very limited
to a small area in the threaded end of the vessel which implies
that fatigue crack propagation may not be much influenced
by the very localized residual stress fields.
Care should be taken when interpreting the results presented
in this paper since there are many geometric, material and
loading related parameters that can influence the stress cal-
culations.
Acknowledgments
This research was partially supported by a grant from the
Natural Science and Engineering Council of Canada. Also,
the ABAQUS finite element code was made available at "Uni-
versity rate" for this work.
References
1 Fasiczka, R. G., "Qualitative Significance of the Design Parameters of
Threaded End Closures," ASME PVP-Vol. 148, 1988, pp. 139-145.
2 Chaaban, A., and Jutras, M., "Static and Fatigue Analysis of Buttress
Threads of Thick-Walled Vessels using the Finite Element Method," ASME
PVP-Vol. 148, 1988, pp. 35-41.
3 Crum, A. S. D., "The Distribution of Load Over the Threads of a Threaded
Closure: Including Temperature Effects and Local Imperfections," ASME
PVP-Vol. 148, 1988, pp. 43-54.
4 Burns, D. J., Chaaban, A., Mraz, G., and Neubrand, P. P., "Load, Stress
and Fatigue Analysis of Threaded End Closures," ASME PVP-Vol. 125, 1987,
pp. 63-71.
5 Jutras, M., and Chaaban, A., "A Parametric Investigation of Stresses in
Threaded End Closures with Buttress and V Types of Thread," ASME PVP-
Vol. 165, 1989, pp. 57-62.
6 Chaaban, A., and Jutras, M., " A GeneralK t Solution for Circumferential
Cracks in Threaded End Closures," ASME PVP-Vol. 165, 1989, pp. 9-13.
7 Perez, E. H., Sloan, J. G., and Kelleher, K. J., "Application of Fatigue
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Fatigue Performance of Vessels Intended for Operation in the Pressure Range
70 to 1400 M P a , " ASME PVP-Vol. 98-8, 1985, p. 213.
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of Autofrettaged Thick-Walled Cylinders," ASME PVP-Vol. 125, 1987, pp.
17-21.
12 Chaaban, A., Leung, K., and Burns, D. J., "Residual Stresses in Auto-
frettaged Thick-Walled, High Pressure Vessels," ASME PVP-Vol. 110, 1986,
pp. 55-60.
13 Chen, P. C. T., "Stress and Deformation Analysis of Autofrettaged High
Pressure Vessels," ASME PVP-Vol. 110, 1986, pp. 61-67.
14 Milligan, R. V., Koo, W. H., and Davidson, T. E., "The Bauschinger
Effect in a High Strength Steel," Technical Report, Benet Laboratories, Wa-
tervliet Arsenal, WVT-6508, Mar. 1965.
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Tutorial Series on High Pressure Technology, 1988.
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