Time-dependent thermo-elastic creep analysis and life assessment of rotating thick cylindrical shells with variable thickness using TSDT

In the present study, the third-order shear deformation theory (TSDT) is presented to investigate time-dependent thermo-elastic creep behavior and life assessment of rotating thick cylindrical shells with variable thickness made of 304L austenitic stainless steel (304L SS). The cylindrical shells are subjected to non-uniform internal pressure, distributed temperature field, and a centrifugal body force due to rotating speed. Norton's law is used to describe the material creep constitutive model. A system of differential equations in terms of displacement and boundary conditions is derived by employing the minimum total potential energy principle based on TSDT. Then, the resulting equations are solved as semi-analytically using the multilayered method (MLM), which leads to an accurate solution. Subsequently, an iterative procedure is also proposed to investigate the stresses and deformations at different creep times. Larson-Miller Parameter (LMP) and Robinson's linear life fraction damage rule are employed to estimate the creep damages and the remaining life of cylindrical shells. In this research, the creep model uses Norton's law, LMP, and Robinson's approach which is the most accurate and reasonable model. To the best of the researcher's knowledge, in the previous studies, there is no study carried out on third-order shear deformation theory for thermoelastic creep analysis and life assessment of thick cylinders with variable thickness. The results obtained from the multilayered approach are compared and validated with those determined from the finite element method (FEM) to confirm the accuracy of the suggested method based on TSDT and very good agreement is found. The results indicate that the present analysis is accurate and computationally efficient.