Application of Damage-Based Localized Exhaustion Limits for Impulsively Loaded Vessels

Abstract Significant changes to design criteria for impulsively loaded vessels are set for incorporation into the 2025 edition of ASME BPVC Section VIII, Division 3. A proposal increases the through thickness strain limit and adds an explicit requirement to assess impulsively loaded vessels using the damage-based localized exhaustion limits found in ASME BPVC Section VIII, Division 3, KD-232 – ‘Protection Against Local Failure.’ Results from application of these localized exhaustion limits to an explosive containment vessel subjected to repeat dynamic loading undergoing cyclic plasticity are presented. The local exhaustion limits are compared to experimental low-cycle fatigue test data reported by others. Some notable anomalies are reported including the sensitivity of the plastic response to the impulse load shape and its effect on damage accumulation, and for at least one case of uni-axial loading the protection against local failure criteria are found to be unconservative.