Reference stresses and temperatures for cylinders and spheres under internal pressure with a steady heat flow in the radial direction

The paper examines the creep behavior of thick cylinders and spheres subjected to internal pressure and a negative temperature gradient in the radial direction. It is found that at stationary state the rate of radial displacement of the vessel wall is simply proportional to the material creep behavior associated with a single stress and temperature. Such “reference stresses” and “reference temperatures” are defined for spheres and cylinders of varying wall thicknesses. These reference stresses and reference temperatures are valid for any creep problem where the material behavior may be characterized by a function of the form exp (γT)σ^m. The extension of these results to variable pressure and temperature loading cases is discussed.