ACCOUNT FOR METAL TO METAL CONTACT BETWEEN GASKET CENTERING RING AND FLANGE FACING IN CALCULATION USING THE XP CENTS 1591-3 METHOD: COMPARISON WITH OTHER ANALYTICAL METHOD AND FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS

摘要

The european standard EN1591-1, initially published in 2001, defines a calculation method for bolted gasketed circular flanges, alternative to the TAYLOR-FORGE method, used as the basic method in most codes. In 2007, a new part, XP CEN/TS 1591-3, has been added to the EN1591 series. This technical specification enables to take into account the Metal to Metal Contact (MMC), appearing inside the bolt circle on some assemblies. Due to a lack of industrial feedback and detailed validation, this document has not been raised to the standard status. In that context, under the request of its Pressure Vessel and Piping commission, CETIM has performed a study comparing this calculation method to Finite Element Analysis (FEA) on several industrial configurations. After a description of the XP CEN/TS 1591-3 calculation method, the major results obtained for spiral wound gasketed joints where MMC appears between centering ring and flange facing are presented and compared with FEA results. Moreover, results obtained with other classical analytical calculation methods as TAYLOR FORGE and EN1591-1 on the same Bolted Flange Connections (BFC) configuration are also analysed and compared to XP CEN/TS 1591-3 results.