Role: Mechanical Analyst

• Investigated the failure mechanism of a fractured aluminum 6061-T6 pressure vessel using analytical, numerical, and experimental techniques. 

• Simulated real-world failure analysis following a fatal accident at an oil refinery. 

• Performed tensile testing to determine Young’s Modulus (70.48 GPa), Poisson’s ratio (0.353), and yield/ultimate stresses (218 MPa / 310 MPa).

• Conducted strain gauge experiments with uniaxial and rosette gauges under incremental loading (0.25, 0.5, 0.75 kN) to map strain distribution.

• Used Hooke’s Law and Von Mises criteria to compute stress fields.

• Captured isoclinic and isochromatic fringe patterns under various loads using polarized light.

• Identified stress concentrations visually and validated them against FEA.

• Simulated loading conditions on the pressure vessel.

• Found consistent stress concentration at the lower exterior fillet under 500 N loading.

• Estimated critical failure load as 400 N using Von Mises failure criterion.

ANSYS, mechanical testing, photoelastic analysis, strain gauge instrumentation

All methods confirmed that the lower exterior fillet was the critical failure location due to geometric stress concentration. FEA was found to be the most reliable technique due to its convergence behaviour and matching critical stress regions.