It has been well known that the scatter in axial bolt forces of bolted flange connections tightened by torque control methods is substantial. In evaluating the sealing performance of a bolted flange connection with a gasket subjected to internal pressure, it is necessary to know the contact gasket stress distributions due to the scatter of the axial bolt forces in the flange connections tightened by torque control methods. This paper deals with the leakage of a bolted flange connection with a cover of pressure vessel including a spiral wound gasket tightened by a torque wrench. The scatter in the axial bolt forces was measured using strain gauges attached at the shank of bolts. The amount of leakage from the bolted flange connection with cover of pressure vessel was measured by so-called pressure decay method. The gas employed was Helium. From the measured leakage, the actual assembly efficiency is examined. The eight bolts and nuts were tightened according to the ASME PCC-1 method and Japanese method developed by High Pressure Institute (HPI). The difference in the bolt preload was shown between the ASME method and the HPI method. The contact gasket stress distributions at the interface of the flange connection with the gasket were calculated under the measured axial bolt forces by means of finite element analysis. Using the calculated gasket contact stress distribution, the amount of gas leakage was estimated. The estimated gas leakage was compared with the measured results.
In designing a bolted joint, it is important to examine the interface stress distribution (clamping effect) and to estimate the load factor, that is the ratio of an additional axial bolt force to a load. In order to improve the clamping effect raised faces of the interface have been used. But these interfaces in bolted joints have been designed empirically and the theoretical grounds are not made clear. In the present paper, in the case of T-shaped flanges with raised faces the clamping effect is analyzed by a two-dimensional theory of elasticity and the point matching method. Then, the load factor is analyzed. Moreover, with the application of the load a bending moment is occurred in bolts and the stress is added due to this bending moment. The bending moment in the bolt is also analyzed. In order to verify these analyses experiments to measure the load factor and the maximum bolt stress were carried out. The values of the load factor and the load when interface start to separate are compared with those of the joints with flat-faces. The analytical results are in fairly good agreements with the experimental ones.
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