Determining Temperature and Stress Distributions in Pressure Components Based on Measurements of Internal Pressure and Temperature at the Outer Easily Accessible Surface

Abstract

A method for monitoring transient thermal stresses based on the solution of the inverse heat conduction problem is presented. Thermal stresses are determined indirectly on the basis of measured temperature values taken at selected points on the outer surface of a pressure element. First, transient temperature distribution in the whole pressure component is calculated, subsequently thermal stresses are determined using the finite element method. Measured pressure changes are used to calculate internal-pressure caused stresses. Next, the results of temperature and stress monitoring in the thick walled pipe are presented and compared with experimental data. Very good coincidence was found between computational and experimental results.