Regulation about the reduction of pollutant emissions, especially Volatile Organic Compounds emissions, lead to consider leak-tightness of Bolted Flange Connections (BFC) as a design criterion. Most of design codes use the Taylor Forge method as a basis for BFC calculation. It enables to verify, the admissibility of the BFC, from a mechanical point of view, for given calculation conditions, without considering any leak-tightness criterion. The European calculation standard for Bolted Flange Connections EN 1591-1 has been developed in the framework of the Pressure Equipment Directive PED-97/23/EC-29/05/97 and approved in March 2001. It constitutes an excellent alternative to the Taylor Forge method, since it verifies the admissibility of the BFC at all the calculation conditions, for a given initial bolts tightening, based on both leak-tightness and strength criteria. In this paper, a detailed presentation of EN 1591-1 is proposed.
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