Effects of Flange Rotation on the Sealing Performance of Pipe Flange Connections

Abstract

In the pipe flange connection with a raised face, the non-uniform gasket contact stresses in the radial direction are occurred due to the flange rotation. The gasket contact stress distributions have dominant effects on the sealing performance of the pipe flange connection. However, the leak testing of a gasket is usually performed under the uniform gasket contact stress using the rigid platen. It is very important to establish a method which predicts the leak rate from the actual pipe flange connection using the results of the leak test conducted under the ideal condition. To do so, there is a need to know the sealing performance of the actual pipe flange connection. In this study, the leakage tests and the finite element simulations are conducted for some pipe flange connections with different gasket width and different flange thickness, which might cause different flange rotation angle. The effects of the flange rotations on the sealing performance and the mechanical behavior of the pipe flange connection are examined.