Welded Joint Analysis for Pressure Vessels with Medium and Large Diameters

E. Gmez Equipos Nucleares S.A.

Abstract Welded seal joints are recommended for applications where leak proof conditions are necessary and also when the disassembly of the closure parts is not required. Normally, for pressure vessels of medium and large diameters, the relative movements between parts of the joint is considerable due to the different movements of the individual parts or different thermal expansion coefficients. The use of weld ring gaskets with hollow lips, recommended for these type of vessels offers improved stress conditions in the seal weld. However, the construction of these joints using standard gaskets is complicated because the diameters and the configurations of hollow lips are limited. Special fabrication by the suppliers is often very expensive. In this paper, the author proposes the fabrication of hollow lips welded ring joints with a simple method by machining, allowing the designer to select the most appropriate configuration of the joint. The design of the welded ring shall be sufficient to resist the internal pressure and the deflection due to the movements of the flanges. The ANSYS program is used to obtain the optimum parameters of the seal ring. Through several iterations with ANSYS, the author can select the correct diameter and thickness of the seal ring in order to keep the resulting stresses under the specified limits. An example of welded joint ring will be analysed in this paper by the finite element method using the ANSYS program and nonlinear elements.

Introduction
The use of welded joints for medium or large diameter pressure vessels may pose some problems: 1. 2. 3. There are no standard welded ring gaskets available for large diameters. The standard hollow lip gaskets have a fixed diameter of hole and it is not possible to change the diameter of the ring in order to obtain the adequate stiffness. The standard welded ring gasket is fastened to the flange through fillet welds at some points. When the movements are considerable, these fillet welds may become a critical zone.

Due to the above conditions, the designer has to look for different solutions. A good solution to this problem is to custom build the joint. The internal and external surfaces of the ring can be machined, including the edge preparation for the weld. After this operation, the two halves of the hollow lips can be welded to each other. The designer has to calculate the optimum configuration of the welded seal. For this reason, an example is presented in this paper in order to illustrate the process. The following data is the basis for the sample situation: Closure region of a pressure vessel with an internal diameter of 6200 mm, with a hemispherical head of 3800 mm of radius, flanges of 420 mm width and 68 152.4 mm diameter studs (see Figure 1). The internal pressure is 7.2 N/mm2. The base material is SA-508 Type 3 Class 2 and the stud material is SA-540 Grade B24 of the ASME Code (Reference 1). In this case, a cavity incorporating a rubber oring seal was made in order to test the leak proofness during a hydrotest without welding the final seal.

Figure 1 - Geometry of the Closure System Example

Procedure
The analysis of the joints was made using an ANSYS model where different parameters were changed. The dimension of the flanges, the stresses in the studs, head and shell and the stresses in the joint were studied. The purpose of the analysis was to select a configuration where the stresses will meet the applicable limits and the weld ring halves contact each other without any gap. The parameters that affect the stresses in the joint are: 1. 2. The stiffness of the flanges. The stiffness of the flanges directly affect their movements: the rotation of the flanges and the stresses in the seal ring decrease when the stiffness is increased. The contact surface between flanges. The extension of the contact and the roughness of the surfaces influence the movements of the joint.

3.

The prestressing load. The stress in the studs shall be sufficient to resist the hydrostatic end force and additionally shall be sufficient to ensure the contact of the weld ring halves contact with each other without any gap. The diameter and the thickness of the seal ring. The thickness of the ring shall be sufficient to resist the internal pressure and the deflection due to the movements of the flanges. The diameter of the ring has an influence on the deformation capability of the ring. If the diameter of the ring is increased, the ring can be deformed easier.

4.

The analysis of flanges is a typical problem solved by the ANSYS program A good approximation in the solution of items 1 to 3 above is made with axiasymmetric models. The particular solution of item 4 requires more careful considerations. Different configuration must be analysed, varying the diameter and the thickness of the seal ring

Analysis
The analysis was made using the ANSYS 5.6 program with axisymmetric models. The elements used are PLANE42, CONTAC12, BEAM3 and SHELL51. PLANE42 is used for modeling the solid structures, CONTAC12 represents the surfaces which maintain or break physical contact and slide relatively to each other, BEAM3 is used to model the studs where the real constant initial deformation is used to simulate the initial preload and SHELL51 is used to model the different configurations of the seal rings. Two models were used to design the closure system. The first model, seen in Figure 2, has different configurations of the seal ring with several diameters (26, 30, 34, 38 and 42 mm) and each one with several thickness (1, 2, 3 and 4 mm). After establishing the general parameters of the flange (items 1 to 3 of the Procedure), five configuration of the seal ring were modelled as solid models (view Figure 3). Therefore, elements and nodes were generated for each configuration of seal ring and a simple macro was used to change the thickness in the real constants of SHELL51 for the twenty cases (5 diameters x 4 thickness). The intention of this analysis is to select the most appropriate configuration of the seal ring.

Figure 2 - FEM for Analyzing several Configurations of Seal Weld Ring

Figure 3 - Detail of Solid Model for several Configurations of Seal Weld Ring The second model was made after the diameter and the thickness of the seal ring were chosen. In this model the SHELL51 element was changed to PLANE42 element in order to obtain the real peak stresses that the SHELL51 element can not produce. The finite element model can be seen in Figure 4.

Figure 4 - FEM of the selected Seal Ring

Analysis Results & Discussion

As it was explained in section Analysis, twenty cases were executed in order to select the configuration of the seal ring. The maximum average stress intensity (in the middle of the shell) and the maximum total stress intensity (maximum stress between top and bottom of the shell) in the ring were chosen to select the seal ring. The design criteria selected was limiting the average stress to the allowable stress of the seal ring material with a margin of 45% (206.8/1.45 = 142.6 N/mm2 for the material of seal ring SA-508 Type 3 Class 2) and limiting the maximum stress to the yield strength at the design temperature (389.0 N/mm2 at 350C). The results of this first analysis are plotted in the curves of Figure 5 and Figure 6. The red line marks the selected limits for design. With these results, the cheapest configuration (smaller diameter and thickness) is obtained with a diameter of 34 mm and thickness of 2 mm.

Figure 5 - Relation between Maximum Total Stress versus Thickness

Figure 6 - Relation between Maximum Average Stress versus Thickness The results with the final configuration can be seen in Figure 7. The maximum total stress intensity is 357.4 N/mm2. The maximum average stress in the seal is 133.1 N/mm2. These results are similar to those obtained in the analysis using SHELL51 elements in the seal ring. According to the design criteria, these stresses are considered acceptable. An important aspect must be verified: the gaps near the seal ring must be closed in order to impede large movements in the juncture. Figure 8 shows the resulting forces and the

status of the gaps. Figure 8 shows that the gaps near the seal ring are closed and therefore the design is correct.

Figure 7 - Stress Intensity Distribution of the Seal Ring selected.

Figure 8 - Forces and Status of the Gaps Elements

Conclusion
The fabrication of weld seals for pressure vessels of medium and large diameter forming a ring closure is a good solution when it is not possible to use standard weld ring gasket. The designer should keep in mind that: 1. The ring diameter should be capable to withstand the deformation of the flanges and enough thickness to meet the stress limits. The relation between diameter and thickness should be sufficient to resist the stresses. The flange stiffness and the applied preload in the studs should be sufficient to limit its movements. The juncture should have sufficient compression to restrict excessive movements in the seal.

2. 3.

The ANSYS program is a good tool for the design of this closure system. The calculation of flanges with studs is a typical case solved by ANSYS. If the closure of flanges includes a seal weld ring, the designer should start by selecting the adequate methodology, using ANSYS as the best tool to do the analysis. The capabilities of ANSYS (in this case modeling the seal ring with SHELL51 elements) allow to calculate several configurations easily and plotting in curves for its analysis. When the correct configurations is selected, the designer can then model the structure with plane elements in order to obtain the real stresses and, in general, to analyse thermal stresses, fatigue, etc.

References
1. ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code, Section II, "Properties of Materials". Edition 1998, up to and including addenda 2000.