• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.34-41
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• 2018

A flange joint is a pipe connection used to prevent the leakage of high-pressure fluids by inserting a gasket and tightening the bolts. Among several kinds of gaskets available, metal ring type joint gaskets are most widely used in conditions that require high-temperature and high-pressure fluid flow, such as oil pipelines, gas pipes, pumps, valve joints, etc. The purpose of this study is to investigate the contact pressure and stress characteristics closely related to the sealing performance of Class 900 flange joints used in high temperature and high pressure environments. The dimensions of flange joints with five different nominal pipe sizes were determined with reference to those specified in ASME 16.5. The metal ring gaskets inserted in the joints were octagonal and oval gaskets. The bolt tensile forces calculated from the tightening torques were input as the bolt pretension loads in order to determine the contact pressure and stress levels after fastening. Loading was composed of three steps, including the fastening step, and different amounts of applied pressures were used in each analysis to investigate the effect of fluid pressure on the contact force of the joints. A general-purpose software, ANSYS 17.2, was used for the analysis.