Study on Stress Concentration Factor (SCF) in a Tubular Gap K-Joint Subjected To Axial Loading

Stress Concentration Factor (SCF) is critical in the design of structures and pressure vessels. This report discusses the study done on the chosen topic which is the “The Study on Stress Concentration Factor (SCF) in a Tubular Gap K-joint Subjected to Axial Loading”. The objective of the study is to investigate the effect of thickness ratio, τ towards the SCF of the Tubular Gap K-joint. In order to achieve this, a Tubular Gap K-joint was modelled using CATIA and transferred to ANSYS Workbench for Finite Element Analysis. The thickness ratio, τ is varied in order to see its effect towards the SCF. At a later stage, a K-joint with curved bracing member is proposed and analyzed. From the study, it was found that K-joints with curved bracing members have lower Stress Concentration Factor than that of a normal K-joint. During the investigation, one of the challenges that were encountered was obtaining appropriate meshing properties. It is recommended that further studies include the investigation of other variables to see its effects towards the SCF for K-joints with curved bracing members. Besides that, it is also recommended that further studies include the validation of results by conducting experiments on real models of K-joints