Recommendations, it is recommended that in view of the lack of 

 fabrication facilities and the several factors which seriously influence the 

 reliability of such a vessel, the concept of a wire-wound pressure vessel not be 

 considered for immediate application to construction of 10- foot-diameter 

 vessels, and that further investigation into the design of such a vessel should 

 not be undertaken at this time. 



Segmented Modular Vessel 



One of the major problems that confronts all large pressure vessels 

 during their fabrication is the unavailability of large enough fabrication facili- 

 ties, and the limitation imposed on their size by the railroad bridges and tunnels. 

 Transportation by ship may obviate some of the latter problems but then, all 

 fabrication facilities and vessel location sites are not always located at harbors 

 capable of unloading such large structures. 



This problem would be eliminated if the pressure vessel could be built 

 upon location from readily transportable small construction modules. Such 

 modules could possibly have the shape of long mechanically interlocking cylin- 

 drical staves, or of small curved interlocking segment modules (Figure A-5). 

 Inside the cylinder made up of these cylinder construction modules would be 

 end closure ^ ^^^^ Steel liner of highly ductile 



steel which would make the assem- 

 bled cylinder watertight. To 

 retain the end closures, a flange 

 ring would have to be mechanically 

 attached to the ends of the staves, 

 while in the segmented modular 

 construction; the closure would be 

 kept in place by a yoke girdling the 

 whole cylinder around its axis, or 

 a series of circumferential ly spaced 

 tie rods. 



Desirable Features 



1. Cylindrical high-pressure vessels 

 of diameter in excess of 20 feet 

 ' ° i ° can be built utilizing this concept, 



unpressurized pressurized . , , , 



as even for the very large vessels 



Distribution of Hoop Stress ^, j: ■ i- • i i 



the size of individual segments 

 Figure A-5. Segmented-wall concept of would be under 20 tons. 



pressure vessel constructnan. 



49 



