Structural Design, Manufacturing and Maintenance Technology of Flange Seal for Pressure Equipment Based on Leak Rate Control

Abstract

In recent years, Chinese petrochemical plants have been continuously developing towards the direction of extreme conditions such as high temperature, high pressure, aggressive medium, large scale, etc. Once the seal structure of the pressure equipments for petrochemical plants leaks, it will not only cause material loss and nonscheduled shutdown, but also may cause disastrous accidents such as fire, poisoning, environment pollution, personal casualties, etc. This paper focuses on the flange seal structure of pressure equipment for petrochemical plants, makes comparison analysis of the standards/codes of different countries, points out the deficiency of Chinese current standards/codes and gives the advice that controlling leak rate of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) to 2×10−5mg/s • mm as the target to conduct relevant research on design, manufacture, installation and maintenance of flange seal that satisfies leakage rate control requirement and improvement of design standard.