Residual Stress in an Autofrettaged Tube Taking Bauschinger Effect as a Function of the Prior Plastic Strain

Autofrettage is a practical method for increasing the elastic carrying capacity and the fatigue life of thick-walled cylinders such as cannon and high-pressure tubular reactor. Many analytical and numerical solutions for determining the residual stress distribution in an autofrettaged tube have been reported. It is still difficult to model the Bauchinger effect, which is dependent on the prior plasticity in an analytical solution. The reduced Young’s modulus during unloading affects residual stress distribution. However, until now this effect has not been considered in any analytical model. In this paper, an autofrettage analytical solution considering Young’s modulus and the reverse yield stress dependent on the prior plasticity, based on the actual tensile-compressive curve of the material and the von Mises yield criterion, has been proposed. New model incorporates the Bauschinger effect factor and the unloading modulus variation as a function of prior plastic strain, and hence of the radius. Thereafter it assumes a fixed nonlinear unloading profile. The comparison of predicted residual stress distribution by the present solution with that of fixed unloading curve model, and test results shows that the present solution gives accurate prediction of residual stress distribution of an autofrettaged tube. This analytical procedure for the cylinder permits an excellent representation of various pressure vessel steels.