A code widely used in several countries (more than 100 as reported by the Association that publishes) for the calculation and analysis of pressure vessels is the ASME, acronym for “The American Society of Mechanical Engineers”. Brazil is part of this group, largely due to the adoption of this code by PETROBRAS, the great driving force behind the production of capital goods in the country.

In the 80's and 90's, due to the implantation of the Angra 2 plant, there was a brief period in which similar German codes, AD, DIN or KTA, for example, were used in Brazil. The use of these codes did not prosper because the calculation of pressure vessels depends on a whole context, such as the materials defined in each code. Our mills produced almost no materials in compliance with German codes due to lack of demand.

More recently, with the creation of the bloc of countries that formed the European Union, codes from several of these countries gave rise to specific rules in use in the bloc; these are the Euro Norms known as PED (Process Equipment Directive) with mandatory application by law and particularly the standard for the calculation of pressure vessels EN-13445.3. Chinese (GB Standards) and Russian (GOST Pressure Vessels), for example, have their own codes.

Considering the ASME, to the detriment of other codes less used in Brazil, it can be said that the Association that publishes it is formed by committees of experts in various areas of engineering and is called "ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Committee" . This committee, made up of various subcommittees, subgroups, working groups and special committees, is constantly studying and improving the code and a new edition is always published every two years incorporating the latest engineering developments applicable to each case. The first committee was formed in 1911 with the mission of defining rules for the calculation of steam boilers and was composed of only 7 members; today this committee has more than 2,500 members.

Note that the ASME code for pressure vessels is only a small part of the work published by the Association and, even so, it is a gigantic work. The complete code called “ASME Boiler & Pressure Vessel Code” consists of 12 sections numbered in Roman numerals from I to XII and, within these sections, by some subsections, divisions or parts.

For the case of the manufacture of pressure vessels, section VIII of the ASME code called “Rules for Construction of Pressure Vessels” applies; this section is made up of three divisions; division 1, with no specific name, division 2 named “Alternative Rules” and division 3 named “Alternative Rules for Construction of High Pressure Vessels”.

In future articles we will analyze and compare the main characteristics of each of these Divisions.