Efficient assembly of bolted joints under external loads using numerical FEM. (July 2018) - Coria, Ibai
Highlights: Uniform gasket stress distribution is necessary to avoid leakage in bolted joints. Due to external loads the stress is not uniform all along the gasket. This work presents a methodology to compensate external loads. The methodology achieves iteratively the target stress. A uniform stress distribution (±3%) is obtained in the gasket. Abstract: Several factors can cause leakages in a bolted flange connection, external loads being the most important one. External loads such as those produced by misalignment introduce an external axial load combined with a bending moment which could lead to either an excessive compression of the gasket and its subsequent crushing, and/or a separation of the flanges causing leakage failure. Several studies have been carried out to study these prejudicial effects, but no practical solutions are proposed to compensate for them. In this sense, this work presents a numerical methodology that iteratively calculates the non-uniform bolt tightening load distribution to achieve a uniform gasket stress distribution that improves the leakage performance of bolted joints subjected to external loads. Graphical abstract: