A Study on the Behavior of

Single- and Twin-Gasketed

N. Rino Nelson
Mechanical Engineering,
Indian Institute of Technology Madras,
Chennai 600036, India
e-mail: nrinonelson@gmail.com
N. Siva Prasad
GITAM University,
Hyderabad 502329, India
e-mail: sivacae@yahoo.co.in
A. S. Sekhar1
Professor
Mechanical Engineering,
Indian Institute of Technology Madras,
Chennai 600036, India
e-mail: as_sekhar@iitm.ac.in
Flange Joint Under External
Bending Load
Gasketed flange joints are widely used in pressure vessels and piping systems. They are
subjected to bending load due to differential thermal expansion, wind load, self-weight,
etc., in addition to assembly and internal fluid load. Most of the flange designs are based
on equivalent pressure method to include the effect of external bending loads. The behav-
ior of gasketed flange joint is complex due to the nonlinear hysteretic behavior of gasket
material and contact interfaces between joint members. It becomes more complex
when the joint is subjected to bending load at elevated temperatures. In the present work,
performance of a flange joint has been studied under internal pressure and external bend-
ing load at elevated temperatures. A 3D finite element model is developed, considering
the nonlinearities in the joint due to gasket material and contact between its members
along with their temperature-dependent material properties. The performance of joint
under different bolt preloads, internal fluid pressures, and temperatures is studied.
Flange joint with two gaskets (twin-gasketed flange joint, TGJ) placed concentric is also
analyzed. The results from finite element analysis (FEA) are validated using four-point
bending test on gasketed flange joint. The sealing and strength criteria are considered to
determine the maximum allowable bending moment at different internal fluid tempera-
tures, for both single- and twin-gasketed flange joints with spiral wound gasket.
Twin gasket is able to withstand higher bending moment without leakage compared to
single gasket. Results show that the allowable load on flange joint depends on operating
temperature and gasket configuration. [DOI: 10.1115/1.4037070]

Keywords: flange joint, twin gasket, bending moment, thermal loading, nonlinearity,
leakage

1 Introduction factors in designing a leak-tight flange joint are nonlinear hyste-

retic behavior of gasket material and the loading conditions such
Gasketed flange joints are widely used in pipelines and pressure
as high pressure and thermal loads along with external bending
vessels. Gasket is provided between flanges to overcome the sur-
load. Hence, a detailed study is made to know the behavior of gas-
face irregularities on flange mating surface. Gasketed joint failure
keted flange joint under elevated temperature and external bend-
has high impact on the performance, leading to breakdown of
ing loads in addition to pressure loads.
whole system. These joints are usually subjected to assembly and
Considerable work has been done by many researchers on the
fluid loads. When subjected to fluid loads, gaskets are exposed to
gasketed flange joints with external bending loads and internal
different internal pressure (fluid pressure) and external pressure
pressure. Many analytical models have been formulated [2–4] to
(atmospheric pressure). This pressure difference has high influ-
predict the behavior under bending loads. But these models do not
ence on the sealing characteristics of gasket. This phenomenon
include gasket configuration, nonlinearity, and thermal loads.
can be reduced by providing twin gaskets [1] between flanges. In
The behavior of gasketed flange joint under bending load, consid-
twin gaskets, two gasket sealing rings are provided concentric to
ering the anisotropic Hill plastic model for gasket material, was
each other with a gap between them. Due to entrapment of air in
studied by Mathan and Siva Prasad [5]. They have included three-
this gap and increase in its pressure on applying assembly load,
dimensional elastic and plastic material constants in the structural
the pressure difference on either side of inner gasket reduces in
analysis and showed that elastomeric gaskets have better perform-
twin gaskets.
ance under bending loads.
In addition to the above loads, the joints are often subjected to
Wu et al. [6] investigated the effect of friction in bolted flange
bending load due to differential thermal expansion, wind load,
joint subjected to external loads using nonlinear finite element
self-weight, or transmitted load from other members of the
approach. The friction between flanges has significant effect on
system. Equivalent pressure method suggested by ASME is com-
bending and torsional stiffness. Sawa et al. [7] discussed the effect
monly used to consider the effect of external bending loads, which
of bolt preload scatter on sealing of flange joints under external
is excessively conservative [2]. The most common failure in
load and found to be significant. Abid and Nash [8] performed
gasketed flange joint is leakage of internal fluid. The challenging
experimental studies on nongasketed flange joint under combined
internal pressure, axial, and bending loading. Seipp et al. [9] stud-
1
Corresponding author. ied the behavior of spiral wound gasket in bolted flange joints
Contributed by the Pressure Vessel and Piping Division of ASME for publication
in the JOURNAL OF PRESSURE VESSEL TECHNOLOGY. Manuscript received August 9,
under external moments. It can be seen that, external load combi-
2016; final manuscript received May 8, 2017; published online August 1, 2017. nation with bolt load and internal fluid pressure becomes vital
Assoc. Editor: Reza Adibiasl. loading condition to be considered for the safe design of flange

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 Fig. 1 Loads acting on flange joint

joint. It can be noticed from the literature that, only few research-
ers have carried out experimental study on flange joint; moreover,
all the above works concentrate only on single-gasketed flange
joints (SGJ), without including thermal effects. An attempt has
been made in our previous work [10], to evaluate the performance
of flange joint with twin gasket subjected to bending loads using
finite element technique.
In the present study, the results from finite element technique
are validated using four-point bending test for single- and twin-
gasketed flange joints separately. The performance of single- and
twin-gasketed flange joints is analyzed under combined internal
pressure, fluid temperature, and external bending moment. The
effect of thermal loading on allowable bending moment is studied
by considering the temperature-dependent properties of gasketed
flange joint members. The influence of temperature on nonlinear
properties of semimetallic spiral wound gasket is also considered
in the analysis. Maximum allowable bending moment at elevated
temperature is estimated in single- and twin-gasketed joints, con-
sidering the sealing and joint strength criteria. The results
obtained for single-gasketed flange joint (SGJ) and twin-gasketed
flange joint (TGJ) are also compared.
2 Methodology
Finite element analysis (FEA) is carried out on a flange joint
under bending load caused by operating conditions, in addition to
assembly and fluid loads. The results from FEA are validated
using four-point bending test, with constant internal pressure at
room temperature. At higher internal fluid temperature, finite ele-
ment technique alone is used to analyze the flange joint, from
which the maximum allowable bending moment is obtained. Vari-
ous loads considered on the flange joint, along with supports of
span length 800 mm is shown in Fig. 1.
The hydrostatic force (H) acting on the system is a function of
flange geometry and internal fluid pressure (see Fig. 1). Here,
bending moment is induced on the flange joint by applying trans-
verse load on the pipe, which is 150 mm inward to the support on
either side. The induced bending moment is symmetric on both
sides of the joint. Same flange joint configuration and loading con-
ditions are used for both FEA and four-point bending test.
2.1 Joint Configuration. Figures 2(a) and 2(b) show the geo-
metric configuration of single- and twin-gasketed flange joint,
respectively, along with gasket dimensions. The thickness of the
gasket used in the present work is 4.5 mm. In case of TGJ, the gas-
ket alone is changed; keeping other geometric conditions same as
in SGJ. In twin gaskets, two sealing rings are provided with a gap
of 5 mm between them as shown in Fig. 2(b).
2.2 Material Properties. Materials considered for flange
and bolt assembly are SA-105 and SA-193-B7, respectively. The
linear region of the material behavior is characterized using the
elastic modulus and Poisson’s ratio. The temperature-dependent
material properties of flange and bolt materials from ASME [11]
are considered. Table 1 shows the coefficient of thermal expan-
sion for gasket [5] and material properties of joint members.
The spiral wound gasket with graphite as filler material is
used in the present study. These gaskets usually have nonlinear
deformation behavior along with hysteresis. Figure 3 shows the
temperature-dependent nonlinear stress displacement relation [1]
considering the gasket nonlinearities. The coefficient of thermal
expansion and thermal conductivity of gasket material is calcu-
lated using micromechanical analysis of lamina approach [12],
considering it as a composite material. The volume fraction of
base material (SS 304 metal ring) and filler material (flexible
graphite) in spiral wound gasket are taken as 0.15 and 0.85,
respectively. The thermal properties of gasket are calculated from
volume proportion along with base and filler material properties
and given as input for the analysis. Nonlinear properties shown in
Fig. 3 are used to characterize the gasket material for both single
and twin gaskets.

Table 1 Material properties of flange joint members

Member Property 310 K 373 K 473 K 573 K

Flange E (GPa) 210 208 201 195

 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.3
a (106 m/mK) 10.6 11.2 12.0 12.7
k (W/mK) 47.7 47.6 46.2 43.2
Bolt E (GPa) 204 200 193 186
 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.3
a (106 m/mK) 12.0 12.7 13.8 14.9
k (W/mK) 40.8 40.7 39.9 38.4
Gasket a (106 m/mK) 11.8 12.1 12.5 12.9
k (W/mK) 5.6 5.3 4.9 4.6
Fig. 2 Geometric configuration of flange joint

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Fig. 3 Stress displacement relation for gasket material [1]
3 Finite Element (FE) Modeling
In the present study, an 80 mm NPS, Class 600 weld neck raised
face flanges with ANSI B 16.5 dimensions and eight M20 bolts
are considered. Commercial finite element analysis (FEA) soft-
ware, ANSYS v14.5 is used to develop the 3D finite element model.
The flanges are modeled using solid elements, SOLID185,
whereas bolt-nut assembly with SOLID95 for structural analysis.
In order to simulate the behavior of gasketed flange joint, contact
interfaces are established between bolt-flange and nut-flange inter-
faces. In the present FE model, bolt and nut are treated as one
entity and flange ring as a separate entity. Surface to surface con-
tact is modeled with flange as target surface using TARGE170
and bolt/nut as contact surface with CONTAC174. The interfacial
friction [6] considered for the contact surface is 0.2. The gasket is
modeled using a special 3D gasket interface element, INTER 195.
These elements are based on relative deformation of the top and
bottom surfaces and offer a direct means to quantify through-
thickness deformation of the gasket. The pretension element,
PREST179 is used to model the bolt preload applied during
assembly stage of the joint. For thermal analysis, flange and bolt
assembly are modeled using SOLID70 and SOLID90 [13],
respectively.
3.1 Thermal Boundary Condition. Convective boundary
condition is applied to the external surface of flange joint with
20 W/m2K [6] heat transfer coefficient and 310 K bulk tempera-
ture. The pipe is allowed to get heated up due to internal fluid
temperature from its inner circumference to outer circumference,
due to thermal conductivity of material. Considering the steady-
state condition, the internal fluid temperature is directly applied
on the inner circumferential areas of the flange joint with pipe,
which are in direct contact with internal fluid (see Fig. 4(a)). The
internal fluid temperatures considered for the study are 310 K,
373 K, 423 K, 473 K, 523 K, and 573 K. Between the contact enti-
ties, a thermal contact conductance of 0.825 W/K [14] is included,
to model the heat flow between them. The behavior of single- and
twin-gasketed flange joint is studied under different bending
moments.
3.2 Structural Boundary Condition. A 3D finite element
model is developed for one-fourth of the gasketed flange joint,
considering the geometric and loading symmetry. Only one flange
and gasket with half of its original thickness is modeled. Figure 4
shows the symmetric boundary conditions applied on 0-deg faces
and 180-deg faces of the joint, and bottom surface of gasket is
restrained along longitudinal direction. A flange joint with all
loads acting on it is shown in Fig. 1. The analysis is done for
15 kN, 17.5 kN, and 20 kN preload on each bolt and with an inter-
nal pressure of 5 MPa. Internal fluid pressure is applied on the
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Fig. 4 Boundary condition for gasketed flange joint
inner surface of flange and the surface enclosed by flange and
gasket inner diameter.
3.3 Gasketed Flange Joint. The final mesh is obtained after
performing convergence study in the critical regions. The leakage
criterion for SGJ is provided in ASME [15] using residual stress
line as a function of internal pressure and gasket material. The
residual stress line (minimum residual stress, which the gasket
requires under the specified load condition to prevent leakage) for
SGJ is mP. The gasket getting compressed during assembly stage,
relaxes on application of internal pressure due to opening of
flange members in the joint. This reduced gasket stress should be
within the limit, for safe joint.
In twin-gasketed flange joint, two gaskets are placed concentric
to each other. In the previous work of authors [1], the leakage
criterion for TGJ was defined, and the residual stress line was
formulated. The minimum residual stress required in TGJ is
ðm  1ÞP. The gasket factor m, defined as maintenance factor, is a
material property of gasket [15]. For spiral wound gasket with
graphite filler material, the value of gasket maintenance factor, m
is 3.
4 Results and Discussion
4.1 Temperature Distribution. FE analysis is carried out on
single- and twin-gasketed flange joint for different internal fluid
temperature, viz, 310 K, 373 K, 423 K, 473 K, 523 K, and 573 K,
just considering thermal loads without structural loads. The fluid
temperature applied on the inner circumferential surface of flange
joint gets conducted to the outer surface. Simultaneously, the
outer surface is subjected to convection at room temperature. This
results in temperature variation from inner to outer surface of
flange joint. Figures 5(a) and 5(b) show the temperature distribu-
tion obtained for single- and twin-gasketed flange joint, respec-
tively, at 473 K internal fluid temperature. The enlarged view
shows the temperature distribution near gasket region. The distri-
bution of temperature is almost same in both single- and
twin-gasketed flange joint, even for other fluid temperatures. This
nodal temperature distribution is superimposed on structural FE
model, to include the thermal effects on field responses.
4.2 Stress Distribution. The leakage of flange joint is defined
using gasket stress distribution. The leakage criterion for SGJ is
based on compressive stress along the gasket inner circumference.
For TGJ, the gasket stress is measured in the inner circumference
of inner gasket, to define joint leakage (see Fig. 6(a)). The
analysis is carried out on gasketed flange joint with single and
twin gaskets at room and elevated temperatures. The sealing per-
formance of the joint is studied under external bending moment.
On application of bending load, the flange joint is subjected to
OCTOBER 2017, Vol. 139 / 051204-3

Fig. 5 Temperature distribution in gasketed joint at 473 K
tension on one side and compression on other. Since, gasket mate-
rial on the tension side relax more, the gasket stress is measured
along the inner circumference of tension side.
In a flange joint subjected to internal fluid pressure, the flange
stresses vary uniformly in the region between bolts. The fillet is
critical stress region in flange member. The radial and tangential
stresses are observed from the flange hub fillet region, whereas
longitudinal stress from hub region just above the fillet. The aver-
age value of stress from nodes in the region of interest is obtained
to avoid stress concentration at particular nodal points (see
Fig. 6(b)). When the flange joint is subjected to bending load, the
longitudinal stress on tension side is higher compared to the same
on compression side of flange. Due to this condition, the longitu-
dinal stress is measured from the tension side of flange hub
region.
4.2.1 Gasket Stress Distribution at Elevated Temperature.
The leakage for single- and twin-gasketed flange joint is defined
using the minimum residual stress required on gasket. The leakage
occurs beyond the bending moment, where the gasket stress varia-
tion line intersects the residual stress line for a given internal pres-
sure. The corresponding bending moment value to the point of
intersection is the maximum bending moment without leakage.
The joint is safe without leakage, below the corresponding bend-
ing moment. The gasket stress variation is obtained for 20 kN bolt
preload and 5 MPa internal pressure. The analysis is also carried
out for 15 kN and 17.5 kN bolt preload and observed that the
safe value increases with bolt preload. This is due to higher
compression of gasket during assembly stage at higher bolt pre-
load. Figure 7 shows the variation in gasket stress with bending
moment for different fluid temperatures in SGJ and TGJ. In
Fig. 6 Stress distribution in TGJ for 4.5 kNm bending moment at 310 K
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Fig. 7 Variation of gasket stress against bending moment for
different fluid temperature in SGJ and TGJ for F 5 20 kN
single-gasketed flange joint (SGJ), the allowable bending moment
for 20 kN bolt preload and 5 MPa internal pressure at 310 K based
on leakage criterion is 4.725 kNm, which reduces to 2.250 kNm
at 573 K internal fluid temperature. This reduction is due to differ-
ential thermal expansion in flange joint.
The coefficient of thermal expansion of bolt is higher compared
to that of flange and gasket material as shown in Table 1. When
subjected to higher internal fluid temperatures, the thermal expan-
sion in bolt is more, resulting in relaxation of gasket stress. Due to
this phenomenon, the capability to withstand external bending
moment also reduces at elevated temperatures.
In twin-gasketed flange joint, the allowable bending moment
reduces from 7.500 kNm at 310 K to 4.330 kNm at 573 K for
20 kN bolt preload and 5 MPa internal pressure, as shown in
Fig. 7. Therefore, TGJ allows more bending moment without
leakage, compared to SGJ at both room and elevated temperatures
(see Fig. 7).
4.2.2 Flange Stress. Allowable stress (ra ) for the flange mate-
rial, SA-105 from ASME [11] is 138 MPa. As indicated in
Sec. 4.2, components of flange stress are measured at hub and
fillet regions. Among the flange stress components, radial stress is
highest in integral flanges. But longitudinal stress increases more
with external load compared to other components, making it vital
for flange design.
The flange stress components obtained from FEA are validated
with ASME [15] calculated values at room temperature. The lon-
gitudinal stress obtained from ASME and FEA are 67.68 MPa and
64.16 MPa, respectively, for 20 kN bolt preload and 5 MPa inter-
nal pressure. Similarly, radial and tangential stresses are also
found to be in close agreement. The same FEA procedure is
extended to obtain the flange stress components, under external
bending moment at elevated temperatures.
Figures 8 and 9 show the variation of flange stress components
with bending moment for single- and twin-gasketed flange joints,
Transactions of the ASME
 Fig. 8 Variation of flange stress against bending moment in
SGJ for F 5 20 kN

respectively, under 310 K and 573 K fluid temperatures. Based on

joint strength, the permissible bending moment for 20 kN bolt pre-
load and 5 MPa internal pressure at 310 K is 2.725 kNm, which
increases to 3.225 kNm at 573 K fluid temperature, in SGJ. It is
well known that, the stress relaxation occurs when subjected to
higher temperature. As shown in Figs. 8 and 9, the flange stresses
reduce with increase in temperature, and the allowable stress is
same for the temperature range considered for the study (upto
573 K). Therefore, permissible bending moment based on strength
criterion increases with temperature.
Among the flange stress components, radial stress is decreased
more with increase in temperature compared to longitudinal and
tangential components. This decrease in flange radial stress is due Fig. 10 Experimental test rig for four-point bending test of gas-
its proximity to the cantilevered flange ring region (connected to keted flange joint
hub on one side and free on the other), which gets more relaxed at
elevated temperature. The longitudinal stress in TGJ is observed
to be marginally higher than SGJ. This is due to increase in stiff-
rested on the supports, and transverse load is applied using hydraulic
ness by providing two gaskets. In TGJ, the permissible bending
press which in turn produces bending moment on flange joint. The
moment increases from 2.720 kNm at 310 K to 3.218 kNm at
value of transverse load applied is obtained from the load cell
573 K for 20 kN bolt preload and 5 MPa internal pressure. These
connected to the ram of hydraulic press. The entire experiment is
values are marginally lower than those of SGJ. However, based
carried out at room temperature and constant internal fluid pressure
on strength criterion, TGJ provides marginally lower permissible
of 5 MPa. The bolt strains are measured to confirm the bolt preload
bending load.
applied during the assembly of flange joint. The structural responses
are measured from flanges using strain gauges fixed in longitudinal
and circumferential orientation, near fillet region between flange
5 Experimental Study ring and hub. The strains are measured on both compression and
tension side of both flanges in gasketed flange joint produced by
5.1 Experimental Procedure. The test rig used for conduct-
bending moment. The response from strain gauges is acquired using
ing four-point bending test in gasketed flange joint, for determining
a 20 channel data acquisition system.
leakage bending load is shown in Fig. 10. It consists of Class 600
The transverse load is applied gradually from zero to a value
weld neck flange, tungsten inert gas welding welded on to one end
till the leakage occurs. The leakage is observed using the leakage
of pipe, both having 80 mm nominal pipe size (NPS) with 80 sched-
detecting solution, which produces bubbles near the leak region.
ule. The other end of the pipe is closed using end plates of 8 mm
The response from strain gauges is continuously monitored till
thickness to obtain a closed system. Water is used as internal fluid
leakage point. In the sequence of operation, bolt preload is applied
and pressurized using a manual hydraulic pump. The pipe system is
during assembly stage, followed by pressurization of internal fluid
and application of transverse load.

5.2 Performance Validation. The strains obtained in the

Fig. 9 Variation of flange stress against bending moment in
TGJ for F 5 20 kN
flange from experiment are compared with FEA values in Fig. 11
for TGJ. The trends of strains against bending moment are almost
same for both experiment and FEA, with experimental values are
marginally low. The results from experiments also show that, the
longitudinal strain component is higher than tangential compo-
nent. Even from experiment, it is clear that longitudinal strain is
more affected by the external load. Similar response is obtained
for single-gasketed flange joint. Figure 11 confirms FEA as a
conservative approach.
In twin-gasketed flange joint, the strain component values are
marginally higher compared to single-gasketed flange joint at
lower bending moment values. But, with increase in bending
moment, the increase of strain in TGJ is lower compared to that in

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 rate, until reaching a load value closer to the minimum leaking
load obtained from FEA. Thereafter, the load is maintained at the
same value for 15 min to detect leakage [16]. The leakage is con-
centrated near the gasket mating surface; hence, leakage detecting
fluid is applied in that region. At the leakage point, the leakage
detecting fluid turns to bubbles indicating the escape of pressur-
ized fluid from the system. The bending moment at which the
single- and twin-gasketed flange joint leaks is shown in Table 2.
Twin-gasketed flange joint is able to withstand 99.8 kN bending
load without leakage experimentally and 100 kN from FEA;
whereas SGJ can withstand 65.5 kN from experiment and 62.6 kN
from FEA at 20 kN bolt preload and 5 MPa internal pressure. The
allowable bending moment for leakage is more in TGJ compared
to SGJ for the same bolt preload. The FEA leakage is in reasona-
Fig. 11 Validation of flange strains in TGJ for F 5 20 kN at ble agreement with the experimental values. The slight deviation
room temperature in FEA prediction may be due to the application of fluid pressure
in the area enclosed by flange inner diameter and gasket inner
diameter, instead of gasket reaction diameter, used in ASME
standard. Therefore, FE approach is marginally conservative in
predicting leakage.

6 Maximum Allowable Bending Moment

FEA results are validated using four-point bending test at room
temperature. But in practice, flange joints are operated at high
temperatures. The analysis is done on single- and twin-gasketed
flange joint under different internal fluid temperatures with 5 MPa
internal pressure. At elevated temperature, the maximum allow-
able bending load is determined, considering the leakage and
Fig. 12 Comparison of experimental longitudinal flange strain
strength criteria as discussed in Secs. 4.2.1 and 4.2.2. The allow-
from SGJ and TGJ for F 5 20 kN at room temperature able stress for bolt material at room and elevated temperature
(upto 573 K) is 172 MPa. For the range of bolt preload considered
in the present work, the bolt stress obtained on application of
Table 2 Comparison of maximum bending load without leak- internal pressure and external bending load is well within the
age at P 5 5 MPa allowable limit. Thus, the bolt stress is not critical in the present
work. The allowable bending moments determined separately
Allowable bending load (kN) based on sealing and strength criteria for both single- and twin-
gasketed flange joint at 20 kN bolt preload are shown in Table 3.
SGJ TGJ Based on sealing criterion, 7.5 kNm is the leakage bending
moment in TGJ at room temperature; whereas it is 4.7 kNm for
Preload (kN) FEA Experiment FEA Experiment SGJ. At room temperature, TGJ is able to withstand 58% more
bending moment than SGJ based on sealing criteria for 20 kN bolt
15 23.0 27.7 51.4 49.0
preload. Even at elevated temperature, TGJ is better than SGJ,
17.5 40.0 41.6 71.4 68.5
20 62.6 65.5 100.0 99.8 withstanding higher bending moment without leakage. Therefore,
TGJ has better sealability than SGJ, even under external bending
load at elevated temperature.
The longitudinal flange stress, from single- and twin-gasketed
SGJ as shown in Fig. 12. Therefore, FEA strain responses are vali- flange joints are almost same with marginally higher stress in lat-
dated using experimental results, with FEA being conservative. ter. This leads to almost same allowable bending moment based
on strength criterion at room and elevated temperatures for both
5.3 Minimum Leakage Bending Load. The pressure of gasketed joints. The marginally higher stress in TGJ is due to
internal fluid is kept constant, as 5 MPa throughout the experi- slight increase in stiffness of gasket. Therefore, the gasket stress
ment. The transverse load is applied gradually from zero at a low relaxation due to differential thermal expansion is more,

Table 3 Allowable bending moment for SGJ and TGJ at P 5 5 MPa

Allowable bending moment Maximum allowable bending moment

(kNm) at 20 kN based on (kNm) (lowest of two criteria)

Sealing criterion Strength criterion F ¼ 15 kN F ¼ 17.5 kN F ¼ 20 kN

Temperature (K) SGJ TGJ SGJ TGJ SGJ TGJ SGJ TGJ SGJ TGJ

310 4.725 7.500 2.725 2.720 1.730 3.175 2.925 2.920 2.725 2.720
373 4.220 6.750 2.835 2.830 1.610 3.25 2.890 3.045 2.835 2.830
423 3.960 6.420 2.920 2.920 1.290 3.323 2.450 3.130 2.920 2.920
473 3.330 5.630 3.030 3.025 0.750 2.700 2.010 3.245 3.030 3.025
523 2.770 4.960 3.130 3.120 0.420 2.240 1.500 3.30 2.770 3.120
573 2.250 4.320 3.225 3.218 0.110 1.820 1.010 3.075 2.250 3.218

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  Safe bending moment is marginally low in TGJ based on
strength criterion, due to increase in gasket stiffness.
 At lower temperature, the safe bending moment is limited by
joint strength criterion. But, at elevated temperatures depend-
ing on the bolt preload considered, the safe bending moment
is limited by sealing capacity of the joint.
 Twin gaskets can be preferred over single gasket in flange
joints under combined internal fluid and external bending
load.
Depending on the bolt preload, the fluid temperature upto
which the safe bending moment is limited by joint strength varies.
Beyond that temperature, the safe bending moment is controlled
by sealing criterion. Therefore, maximum allowable bending
moment in flange joint is highly dependent on gasket configura-
Fig. 13 Allowable bending load in SGJ and TGJ for different
fluid temperature at 20 kN and 5 MPa
tion, operating temperature, and bolt preload.

Nomenclature
compared to longitudinal flange stress relaxation, at elevated
temperature. B¼ flange inner diameter
Table 3 shows the maximum allowable bending moment BM ¼ external bending moment
(BMa ), considering the least of two criteria under different internal EXP ¼ experiment
fluid temperature. For 20 kN bolt preload, BMa is limited by joint F¼ bolt preload on each bolt
strength upto 495 K fluid temperature; whereas above that temper- FEA ¼ finite element analysis
ature, it is limited by sealing criterion for SGJ as shown in H¼ hydrostatic force
Fig. 13. But in TGJ, BMa is limited by joint strength throughout k¼ thermal conductivity
the fluid temperature for 20 kN bolt preload. Twin-gasketed flange m¼ gasket factor
joint is able to withstand higher bending moment without leakage P¼ internal pressure
for wide range of fluid temperature (see Table 3). Thus, BMa is RSL ¼ residual stress line
limited by strength criterion in TGJ. Even for 15 kN and 17.5 kN SGJ ¼ single-gasketed flange joint
bolt preload, the allowable bending moments based on sealing and TGJ ¼ twin-gasketed flange joint
strength criteria (similar to Table 3 for 20 kN) are determined a¼ coefficient of thermal expansion
separately, from which BMa is arrived. e¼ strain
The maximum allowable bending moment (BMa ) in SGJ, at ¼ Poisson’s ratio
20 kN bolt preload and 523 K fluid temperature is 2.770 kNm; r¼ stress
whereas the same in TGJ is 3.120 kNm. The twin-gasketed flange
joint is observed to have higher BMa compared to single-gasketed Subscripts
flange joint above 495 K. It is the temperature at which toggling
a ¼ allowable limit
of limiting criterion takes place for SGJ. Due to marginally higher
l ¼ longitudinal component
longitudinal stress in TGJ, it has slightly lower BMa than SGJ in
r ¼ radial component
the temperature range 310 K to 495 K, for 20 kN bolt preload.
t ¼ tangential component
For 15 kN bolt preload, BMa is limited by sealing criteria
throughout the temperature range, in SGJ. But, due to higher
longitudinal flange stress with increase in bolt preload, BMa is ini-
tially limited by strength criteria and changes to sealing criteria References
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respectively. Since, the allowable bending moment in TGJ via
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[5] Mathan, G., and Siva Prasad, N., 2011, “Studies on Gasketed Flange Joints
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[16] ASTM, 2000, “Standard Test Method for Hydrostatic Leak Testing,” American
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