Sure, I can easily imagine that by mentally substituting steel with jello—at some point you’re tear it apart no matter how thick the walls are. However, that substitute also gives me the impression that most shapes we would normally consider for a vessel don’t reach the maximum strength possible for the material.
Most vessels are spherical or cylindrical, which is already pretty good (intuitively, spherical vessels should be optimal for isotropic materials). You might want to take a look at the mechanics of thin-walled pressure vessels if you didn’t already.
It’s important to note that the radial stresses in cylindrical vessels are way smaller than the axial and hoop stresses (which, so to say, pull perpendicular to the “direction” of the pressure). This is also why wound fibers can increase the strength of such vessels.
Sure, I can easily imagine that by mentally substituting steel with jello—at some point you’re tear it apart no matter how thick the walls are. However, that substitute also gives me the impression that most shapes we would normally consider for a vessel don’t reach the maximum strength possible for the material.
Most vessels are spherical or cylindrical, which is already pretty good (intuitively, spherical vessels should be optimal for isotropic materials). You might want to take a look at the mechanics of thin-walled pressure vessels if you didn’t already.
It’s important to note that the radial stresses in cylindrical vessels are way smaller than the axial and hoop stresses (which, so to say, pull perpendicular to the “direction” of the pressure). This is also why wound fibers can increase the strength of such vessels.