It is well known that a large amount of scatter in bolt preloads is observed when bolting up a pipe flange connection, especially in the case of using a spiral wound gasket. In this study, a numerical approach is proposed, which can simulate the bolt-up process of a pipe flange connection with a spiral wound gasket inserted. The numerical approach is designed so as to predict the scatter in bolt preloads and achieve uniform bolt preloads at the completion of pipe flange assembly. To attain the foregoing purposes, the stress-strain relationship of a spiral wound gasket, which shows highly nonlinear behavior, is identified with a sixth-degree polynomial during loading and with an exponential equation during unloading and reloading. Numerical analyses are conducted by three-dimensional FEM, in which a gasket is modeled as groups of nonlinear one-dimensional elements.

Issue Section:
Technical Papers
Keywords:
stress-strain relations, finite element analysis
Topics:
Electromagnetic scattering, Flange connections, Gaskets, Pipes, Stress, Flanges, Numerical analysis, Bearings, Pressure, Stress-strain relations, Finite element analysis
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