DESIGN OF METAL-TO-METAL CONTACT FLANGES OF PRESSURE VESSELS USING FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS

Abstract

The flanged joint is one of the weakest elements on the piping system because of leakage. The leakage-free joint is the target of the standard codes and many analytical and experimental studies. The codes usually focus on the conventional flanged joints containing gaskets. The gasketed joint which is classified in the standard codes was studied under different operating conditions to investigate its performance and its sealing capability.

The metal-to-metal contact face flanged joint has been studied using Finite element method to be developed and to be an alternative for the gasketed joint. The studies showed that the gasketed joint cannot be used for higher loading conditions because of gasket material hysteresis.

The non-gasketed joint has been studied under different mechanical loading to be developed and it showed high efficiency than the conventional joint.

The present studieswere implemented about the metal-to-metal contact face flanges as a 3D finite element model to investigate the behavior of the joint under different loads. The joint study passes over three stages of development. Starting from studying the model under mechanical loading only then, the model was studied to investigate the effect of friction on the joint stresses. The last stage of development included applying of combined loading of pressure and temperature.