The modelling of bolted flange joints used with disc springs and tube spacers to reduce relaxation

Bolted flange joints are prone to leakage when exposed to high temperature. In several cases, the root cause is relaxation that takes place as a result of material creep of the gasket, the bolt and the flange. One way to overcome this problem is to make the joint less stiff by introducing disc springs or the use of longer bolts with spacers. Although widely used, these two methods have no reliable analytical model that could be used to evaluate the exact number of washers or length of the bolts required to reduce relaxation to a minimum acceptable level. This paper describes an analytical model based on the flexibility and deflection interactions of the joint different elements including the axial stiffness of the flange and bolts, used to evaluate relaxation. The developed analytical flange model can accommodate either disc springs or longer bolts with spacer tubes to reduce the bolt load loss to a maximum acceptable value. This model is validated by comparison with the more accurate FEA findings. Calculation examples on a bolted flanged joint are presented to illustrate the suggested analytical calculation procedure. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.