FLANGE LEAKAGE ANALYSIS

TYPES OF FLANGES
FLANGE
FLANGE LEAKAGE ANALYSIS METHODS
INTRODUCTION
Introduction
Types Of
Flanges
WELDING NECK FLANGE
SLIP - ON FLANGE
LAP - JOINT FLANGE
BLIND FLANGE
SOCKET WELDED FLANGE
Back
THREADED FLANGE
Slip - On Flange
Back
They are typically used on low-pressure, low-hazard services such as fire water, cooling water and
other services.
Features:
Lower cost
Reduced accuracy required in cutting the pipe to length
Greater ease of installation.
Limitations:
Strength under internal pressure is of the order of two-thirds that of WNRF.
Life under fatigue is about one-third that of the WNRF. Hence, slip-on flanges are limited in sizes up
to 2 for 1500 #.
The ASME Boiler Construction Code limits their use to the 4 size.
Welding Neck
Flange
Back
They are suitable for conditions where pressure as well as temperature are high. Normally used in
petrochemical and refinery plants for all process service conditions.

Features:

Long tapered hub provides an important reinforcement for the flange from the standpoint of
strength and resistance to dishing.
The smooth transition from flange thickness to pipe wall thickness by the tapered hub is extremely
beneficial under conditions of repeated bending, caused by line expansion or other variable forces.
Thus this type of flange is preferred for very severe service condition.
Lap - Joint
Flange
Back
Lap Joint Flanges are cost effective in expensive pipe such as stainless steel due to the fact
that only the stub must match the pipe and the flange can be made of cheaper carbon steel
material. Their pressure holding ability is better then that of SORF. The chief use of lap joint
flanges in carbon or low alloy steel piping systems is:

Services demanding frequent dismantling for inspection and cleaning.
Where the ability to swivel flanges and to align bolt holes simplifies the erection of large
diameter or exceptionally stiff piping.

The fatigue life of the assembly is only one-tenth that of WNRF. Their use at points where
severe bending stress occurs should be avoided.

Socket Welded
Flange
Back
Socket Welding Flanges were initially developed for use on small size high pressure piping.
Their initial cost is about 10% greater than that of slip-on flanges. Their fatigue strength is 50%
greater than slip-on flanges.
Threaded
Flange
Back
Threaded flanges made of steel, are confined to special applications. Their chief merit lies in the
fact that they can be assembled without welding. This explains their use in extremely high
pressure services, where alloy steel is essential for strength and where the necessary post weld
heat treatment is impractical.
Limitations
Threaded flanges are not suited for conditions involving temperature or bending stresses of any
magnitude. Under cyclic conditions, leakage through the threads may occur in relatively few
cycles. Seal welding is sometimes used to overcome this, but can not be considered as entirely
satisfactory.
Blind Flange
Back
Blind flanges are used to blank off the ends of piping, valves, and pressure vessels openings.
From the standpoint of internal pressure and bolt loading, blind flanges, particularly in the
large sizes, are the most highly stressed.
Normally, in spite of tight bolted connection between flanges, due to thermal growth of the
piping / excessive deflection, bending moment will be created, which tries to open up the
flange joint, causing the fluid leakage, which is hazardous. Hence, in refinery plants, the
flange leakage analysis becomes mandatory for the following conditions.


When nonstandard sizes of piping or flanges are specified.
When the application is critical; for example, Category M fluids
Where large bending moments exist at flanged joints.
As per project specification / guidelines.
Flange Leakage
Analysis
Back
Category M Fluid Service:

A fluid service in which the potential for personnel exposure is judged to be
significant and in which a single exposure to a very small quantity of a toxic fluid,
caused by leakage, can produce serious irreversible harm to persons on
breathing or bodily contact.
Fluid
Service
Back
Flanged Joint
Behavior
A typical flanged joint as shown in Figure 1 and consists of four inter-
dependent elements; Bolts, Gasket, Flange ring, Taper hub. In different
type of joints, these elements may change in shape but they retain their
basic functions and perform in a similar way.
Bolts are used to assemble / disassemble a flanged joint. They are also
required to hold the joint together under pressure and to pre-stress the
gasket sufficiently to enable it to function as a seal.
All bolts behave like a heavy spring. As you turn down the nut against the
flange, the bolt stretches and the flange and gasket compress.
Bolts stretch according to Hookes law:



Bolts
Back
As E
Lb Fp
Lb

A =
AL
b
= Change in length of bolt, (in)
F
p
=

Applied tensile load, (lb)
L
b
= Effective length of bolt length in which
tensile stress is applied (in)
E = Youngs Modulus of elasticity, psi
As = Tensile stress area of bolts, in

Gasket
Gasket is introduced between the flanges to prevent the contained fluid from leaking. It is usually
made from a softer medium and is thereby capable of adapting to the shape of the flange
surfaces, making intimate contact. Sealing can thus be achieved at a lower pre-stress and more
economically than would be required with two metal flange faces being brought together without a
gasket. Gaskets are also convenient because they are relatively cheap and easy to replace and
should require minimal rework when in service. Tightening of the bolts with correct pre-stressing of
the gasket is vital to the successful performance of a joint.
Back
In high-temperature services, the flanges will heat up at a
faster rate than the bolts. This results in a higher thermal
expansion of the flanges with respect to the bolts, increasing
the bolt load and gasket stress. The gasket will then deform
under the higher applied load during this cycle. Most gasket
will deform permanently and will not rebound when the cycle
goes away. During the cooling cycle, the bolt load will
decrease and hence loss of gasket stress. As gasket stress
decreases leak rate increases.
Typical Gasket Behavior
Figure illustrates some of the more common typical gasket characteristics. On first loading, as the
bolts are tightened up, the gasket usually follows a non-linear and non-recoverable path. During this
initial phase (O-A) the gasket is forced to conform to the flange faces, filling the irregularities
present on any surface. The point at which the gasket provides the minimum effective seal is known
as the gasket seating stress (y).
The region marked A-B-C is the useful sealing range of the gasket. For an effective seal, the joint
should be assembled to some stress value between the gasket seating stress (y) at point A and the
crushing limit of the gasket at point C. The seating stress is given in the code. The crushing limit is
usually be obtained from gasket manufacturers. When the gasket is compressed beyond its
crushing limit, some form of breakdown usually occurs in such a manner that joint sealing is
adversely affected.
If the gasket is tightened to some value between A and C and then the gasket is unloaded (by
internal pressure or bolt loosening), it will follow a path something like `B-B'. When the gasket is
reloaded it will follow a path close to the decompression line. When the loading again reaches point
B, the gasket then continues to follow the initial loading curve A-C as though it had never been
unloaded.
At some point during the unloading of the gasket, it reaches a point at which it can no longer
reliably perform its sealing functions. This minimum gasket sealing stress (or pressure) is
dependent on the gasket type and the internal pressure. It is usually calculated from the product of
the gasket factor m and the maximum internal pressure in order to ensure that the gasket pressure
always exceeds the internal pressure.
Typical Gasket Behavior
Bolt Load And Gasket
Reaction
Description of the equilibrium :
Balance of the assembly axial forces
Mechanical model
When a flange is bolted up and is not under internal pressure, the bolt load is balanced by the
Gasket Reaction.
To secure a tight joint, it is necessary to seat the gasket properly by applying a minimum load in
the cold condition . This load is a function of the gasket material and the effective gasket area
to be seated. This is known as minimum gasket seating stress y
As internal pressure is applied, the bolt load is balanced by the sum of the gasket reaction,
pressure load on flange face and hydrostatic end load below.
w w
G
HG
Where
W : Bolt Load
HG : Gasket Load
H : Hydrostatic End force
w w
H
HG = W-H
Bolt Load And Gasket
Reaction
The compressive load on the gasket is reduced as the internal pressure increases. Leakage
will occur when the gasket pressure reduces to some gasket minimum sealing pressure (P
gm
).
Theoretically a joint will seal provided the gasket pressure remains greater than the internal
pressure. but in practice it is found that in order to have some margin of safety against leakage,
it is necessary to keep the gasket pressure above the internal pressure P, by some factor m

i.e. P
gm
>= m*P

where m is the gasket factor which is a function of gasket material. The Code equation
defines this term as the ratio of residual gasket load (Original load - Internal fluid pressure) to
fluid pressure at leak.
Bolt Load And Gasket
Reaction
The bolt loads used in calculating the required cross-sectional area of bolts shall be determined
as follows.

(1) W
m2
= y**G*b

=gasket seating stress * surface area(2*pi*r*L)

(2) W
m1
= P*/4*G + 2*m*P**G*b

The force applied from bolts (outside) should be sufficient enough for

a) for providing enough gasket seating stress

b) overcoming the internal pressure

The first term on the right side represents the hydrostatic pressure load acting on the effective
gasket diameter, and the second term gasket reaction. The effective gasket contact width
becomes 2b because of the appearance of the factors mP in place of y.


W
m2
= Required bolt load for gasket seating.
W
m1
= Required bolt load for operating conditions.
b = Effective gasket seating width.
G = Diameter at location of gasket load reaction.
y = Gasket or joint -contact surface unit seating load.
m = Gasket factor.
P = Design Pressure.

y factor is the minimum gasket seating stress that is required to seat the gasket to prevent leaks
in the joint as the system is pressurized. It is the flange pressure to compress the gasket enough
to eliminate pores.

m is the gasket factor. The Code equation defines this term as the ratio of residual gasket load
(Original load - Internal fluid pressure) to fluid pressure at leak.
Bolt Load And Gasket
Reaction
In the second equation, the first term on the right side represents the hydrostatic
pressure load acting on the effective gasket diameter, and the second term
gasket reaction. The effective gasket contact width becomes 2b because of the
appearance of the factors mP in place of y.

Bolt Area:

If S
b
denotes the allowable stress at the operating temperature of the bolts and S
a

the allowable bolt stress at atmospheric temperature, then the minimum total bolt
area A
m
required is obtained as follows.
A
m
= W
m1
/S
b
or W
m2
/S
a
,
Whichever is greater.

Bolt Load:

Under operating condition, bolt load (W) is:
W = W
m1

For gasket seating,
W = A
b
S
a
where S
a
is Bolt allowable stress at ambient temperature
Bolt Load And Gasket
Reaction
Flange Loading
Flange Loading
The total flange moment under operating conditions is,
H
G
is the gasket minimum sealing load as given in the second part of the equation for W
m1

which is considered to be located at the gasket effective diameter i.e. at a distance h
G
from the
PCD.
H
D
represents Hydrostatic end force on the inside area of the flange
H
T
is the difference between total hydrostatic end force and hydrostatic end force on inside area
of flange i.e H-H
D
where H is the total hydrostatic end force (/4*G*P)
Flange Loading
The total flange moment for gasket seating is
( )
2
0
G C
W M

=
G G T T D D
h H h H h H M + + =
0
Flange Stresses
Longitudinal Hub Stress
Radial Flange Stress
Tangential Flange Stress
B Lg
fM
S
H
2
1
0
=
( )
B Lt
M te
S
R
2
0
1 33 . 1 +
=
R T
ZS
B t
YM
S =
2
0
For Notations, Please refer ASME Sec VIII, Div 1, Appendix
2, para 2-3
Flange Leakage Calculation
These are the longitudinal hub stress S
H
, radial flange stress S
R
and the tangential flange
stress S
T
, which are limited by,







where, S
F
is the Allowable stress for the flange at the operating temperature.
For Gasket Seating, use corresponding M
0
for calculating the stresses and compare with
Allowable stress at ambient temperature.
From these it can be seen that since the allowable design stress is usually about 2/3 of the
material yield, then this allows the hub to be stressed up to the material yield point, allowing
yielding in the hub during hydrotest. The flange stress limits are set to a level which should
keep the main flange bodies elastic under all conditions, providing the joint is not over tightened
during bolting-up. The latter two stress limits are the application of a Tresca type criterion to the
bi-directional stresses at the interface between the flange and hub.
Flange Allowable
Stresses
f
T H
S
S S
s
|
.
|

\
|
+
2
f H
S S 5 . 1 s
f R
S S s
f T
S S s
f
R H
S
S S
s
|
.
|

\
|
+
2
The equivalent pressure method combines the effect of external load with design
pressure.
In 50's, the equivalent pressure method was devised at Kellogg and has been
adopted in some ASME sections and is frequently used in industry.

In the Equivalent Pressure Method, we compare the total pressure on the flange
with the Test pressure given in the flange standard.

Sg = F / ( * G * b) + M / ( /4 * G * b)


Sg = P
eq
* ( / 4) * G / ( * G * b)


Where:

Sg = Stress on gasket
F = Applied pipe force
G = Gasket diameter
b = Gasket width
P
eq
= Equivalent Pressure due to external Moment & Force
[Applied Force / Area of gasket;
Applied moment / Second moment of
gasket area

Pressure * Internal area / Area of
gasket]

Equivalent Pressure
Method
So, to determine what equivalent pressure would cause the same stress as the
applied piping loads, set them equal to each other:

F / ( * G * b) + M / ( /4 * G * b) = P
eq
* ( /4) * G / (* G * b)

Simplifying:

4F / ( * G) + 16M / ( * G
3
) = P
eq


P
Total
= P
eq
+ P

This is known as Pressure Equivalent Method.

Equivalent Pressure
Method