Integrally Reinforced Nozzles

While visiting a client I was pleasantly surprised to see several tanks constructed with integrally reinforced nozzles. Everyone knows that I like to avoid designing with nozzle pads whenever possible. Integrally reinforced nozzles give the additional reinforcement necessary to resist membrane stress at the nozzle intersection without the negative repercussions of using nozzle pads. 

In the past I had to use spreadsheets to manipulate the nozzle calculations to account for integral reinforcement. Now I can easily model these nozzles with the “Insert (Q) Lip” option in COMPRESS.

Notice that I don’t give up much stress resistance by using a 12” integrally reinforced nozzle over a 12” nozzle with nozzle pad.