Pressure vessels enter into many phases of human activity and, consequently, the services derived from pressure vessels lead to a tremendous variety of applications and associated engineering problems.The most important of these engineering problems covers various aspects of public safety and economics, and are noncompetitive.Because they are the responsibility of the entire engineering community and are of national concern, there has been recognition by leaders in industry and government that the burden of finding solutions must be handled on a cooperative basis and that this effort can best be supported by equitable contributions from industry and/or public funds.