Gawade S. S., Chavan D. S.

/ International Journal of Engineering Research and Applications (IJERA) ISSN:

2248-9622 www.ijera.com Vol. 3, Issue 4, Jul-Aug 2013, pp.799--802 799 | P a g e Load-deflection
analysis of flat & corrugated stainless steel diaphragms by theoretical & finite element method Gawade
S. S.* , Chavan D. S. ** * , ** Department of mechanical Engineering, Rajarambapu Institute of
Technology, Sakharale. Dist – Sangli, Maharashtra. India 415414 ABSTRACT In this study analytical model
for pressure deflection relationship of flat & corrugated stainless steel (SS-304, ASTM A-240) diaphragms
has been proposed. The load-deflection analyses of flat and corrugated stainless steel diaphragms are
performed to compare the sensitivity of the flat and corrugated diaphragm. The application of
corrugated diaphragms offers the possibility to control the sensitivity of thin diaphragms by geometrical
parameters. Depth of corrugations, thickness of diaphragms, and number of corrugations plays an
important role to increase the mechanical sensitivity of the corrugated diaphragm. Verification of results
for load deflec on obtained by analy cal formulae compared with finite element analysis. Keywords:
Load deflection Analysis, Corrugated diaphragms, Sensitivity, Geometric parameters, Finite element
analysis. I. INTRODUCTION Metallic diaphragms are thin circular plates which undergo elastic
deformation when subjected to pressure or axial loading. They may be flat or corrugated in a circular
pattern. The metallic diaphragms are widely used in the pressure measuring instruments. Thin metal
diaphragms are also used in the pressure reducing valves (PRV). In PRV the pressure at downstream
(outlet) side of the valve depends on the amount of deflection of metallic diaphragm. So it is very
important to analyze the behaviour of metallic diaphragm under applied pressure for precise use of
diaphragm for particular application. Mullem et al. [3] experimentally shown that, corrugated
diaphragms have a larger linear range than flat diaphragms. The larger linear range compared with flat
diaphragms made the corrugated diaphragms attractive for specific application with improved
sensitivity. The design of corrugated diaphragms may offer the possibility to control the mechanical
sensitivity of the diaphragm by means of the geometric parameters of the diaphragms, such as depth of
corrugations, thickness of diaphragm and number of corrugations. II. THE DIAPHRAGM STRUCTURES The
diaphragms used in for this study are of two types. One is flat diaphragm and other is corrugated
diaphragm. The material used for both the diaphragms is stainless steel (SS 304 ASTM-240). Flat circular
diaphragm with the size of 190 mm in active diameter and 0.25 mm in thickness of sheet with rigid
center of 90 mm. For the design of corrugated diaphragms active diameter & thickness kept same as flat
diaphragm (190mm & 0.25 mm respectively). In case of corrugated diaphragm geometric parameters
such as depth, pitch (frequency) and number of corrugations are decided by the designer as per
requirement of load – deflection application. In this study we are going to analyze the load – deflection
characteristics of flat & corrugated diaphragm with specific geometry. III. THEORY 3.1. LOAD-
DEFLECTION RELATIONSHIP FOR FLAT DIAPHRAGM WITH RIGID CENTER Figure1: flat diaphragm with
rigid centre. The flat diaphragm shown in figure 1, having material of stainless steel (SS-304) & thickness
of 0.25 mm with dimensions of ‘a’ & ‘b’ are 95 mm & 45 mm respectively. Therefore solidity ratio (b/a)
for given geometry is 0.47. The characteristic equation of a rigid center diaphragm loaded by pressure
for any deflection is given by Giovanni [1], We treat the resistance of the diaphragm to an Gawade S. S.,
Chavan D. S. / International Journal of Engineering Research and Applications (IJERA) ISSN: 2248-9622
www.ijera.com Vol. 3, Issue 4, Jul-Aug 2013, pp.799--802 800 | P a g e external load as the sum of the
resistance to bending and tension, given by equation (1) below, (1) In equation (1), P is applied pressure
in N/ Sq.mm, E is Modulus of elasticity of material N/ Sq.mm, h is thickness of diaphragm in mm, a is
radius of diaphragm in mm, Y is center deflection in mm, Ap & Bp are the numerical constants depends
upon solidity ratio (b/a). The values of constants mentioned above are taken from Diaphragm design
handbook of M. Di Giovanni [1], Constants depend on the material and geometry of the diaphragm. The
constants used flat diaphragms are as mentioned in table (1) below, Table 1: Constants used for flat
diaphragms Parameter Value E (N/mm 2 ) 1.93 * 105 ‘h’ (mm) 0.25 ‘a’ (mm) 95 ‘b’ (mm) 45 ‘b/a’ 0.47 Ap
0.05 Bp 9.8 Solve the equation (1) by putting corresponding values from table 1. It gives the pressure –
deflection plot for flat diaphragm as shown in fig. (2). Figure 2: Pressure- deflection plot for flat
diaphragm with rigid centre 3.2 LOAD- DEFLECTION RELATIONSHIP FOR CORRUGATED DIAPHRAGM:
Figure 3: Cross section of corrugated diaphragm with rigid centre The Cross-section of a circular
corrugated diaphragm is as shown in figure 2. The characteristic equation for the corrugated diaphragm
with rigid center is different from flat diaphragm taken from Giovanni [1] as below, (2) In above
equation Ap, Bp, Kp & Lp are the numerical constants depends on the geometry of the corrugated
diaphragm, Values of these constants are taken from Giovanni [1]. As mentioned in table (2) below,
Table 2: Constants used for corrugated diaphragms Parameter Value E (N/ mm2 ) 1.93 * 105 H (mm) 2
‘a’ (mm) 95 ‘b’ (mm) 45 ‘h’ (mm) 0.25 ‘q’ 10 Ap 96 Bp 0.052 Kp 1.4 Lp 4.3 3.3 CORRUGATION
PARAMETERS Scheeper et al. (1994) [2] indicated that the behaviour of a corrugated diaphragm is
determined by the profile factor q. The number of corrugations has only little influence on the profile
factor whereas q is nearly proportional with the corrugation depth (H). Therefore, the corrugation depth
is the most effective parameter to influence the behaviour of corrugated diaphragms. Dissanayake et
al.2009 mentioned that Depth of corrugation (H), sheet thickness (h), pitch (frequency) of corrugation
(l), numbers of corrugations are considered to be critical parameters in the design of sinusoidal
corrugations as shown in figure (3). For corrugated design proposed here sheet thickness (h) is 0.25 mm,
choose profile factor (q) as 10, Provide two sinusoidal corrugations of pitch 18 mm each with depth of
corrugation (H) as 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.5 2 Deflection (mm) Pressure (bar) Pressure
Vs deflection for flat diaphragm deflection in mm Gawade S. S., Chavan D. S. / International Journal of
Engineering Research and Applications (IJERA) ISSN: 2248-9622 www.ijera.com Vol. 3, Issue 4, Jul-Aug
2013, pp.799--802 801 | P a g e 2mm between rigid center and clamping region as shown in figure (3).
Solve the equation (2) by putting corresponding values from table 2. It gives the pressure – deflection
plot for corrugated diaphragm as shown in figure (4). Figure 4: Pressure- deflection plot for corrugated
diaphragms IV. SIMULATION For both the diaphragm models finite element analysis (FEA) is carried out
with the help of ANSYS simulation software. Results obtained from the ANSYS based FEA of flat &
corrugated diaphragm are presented and analyzed in this section. Additionally, analytical model based
preliminary results are used to validate the FEA simulations. Deformation results achieved from FEA and
the analytical model for both flat & corrugated are presented in figure (5) & figure (6) respectively.
Figure 5: Theoretical & FEA results of deflection plot for flat diaphragm Figure 6: Theoretical & FEA
results of deflection plot for corrugated diaphragm V. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Pressure deflection
relationships for flat & corrugated diaphragms have been presented in figure 2 & 4 respectively. Results
shows that corrugated diaphragms give larger deflection than flat diaphragm at same working pressure.
Following figure shows deflection obtained for flat & corrugated by using ANSYS simulation software at
pressure of 0.2 Bar. It shows flat diaphragm deflects 1.3 mm while corrugated diaphragm deflects 2.7
mm at 0.2 bar pressure. Figure 7: Deflection analysis of flat diaphragm at pressure of 0.2 bar using
ANSYS 11 workbench simulation 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.5 2 Deflection in MM Pressure in Bar
Pressure Vs deflection for corrugated diaphragm Deflection 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.5 2
Deflection in mm Pressure in Bar pressure deflection plot for flat diaphragm theoretical FEA 0 2 4 6 8 10
12 0.2 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.8 1 1.5 2 Deflection in MM Pressure in BAR Pressure deflection plot for corrugated
diaphragm THEORETICAL FEA Gawade S. S., Chavan D. S. / International Journal of Engineering Research
and Applications (IJERA) ISSN: 2248-9622 www.ijera.com Vol. 3, Issue 4, Jul-Aug 2013, pp.799--802 802 |
P a g e Figure 7: Deflection analysis of corrugated diaphragm at pressure of 0.2 Bar using ANSYS 11
workbench simulation VI. CONCLUSIONS Corrugated diaphragm deflects more than flat at same working
pressure. The sensitivity of corrugated diaphragm can be easily controlled as per application by changing
the geometric parameters such as thickness of sheet (h), depth of corrugation (H), Pitch of corrugation
(l). Simulation result has good agreement with theoretical result. REFERENCES [1] M. Di Giovanni, “Flat
and Corrugated Diaphragm Design Handbook”, Marcel Dekker, New York, 1982. [2] Patrick R. Scheeper,
Wouter Olthuis, Piet Bergveld, “The Design, Fabrication, and Testing of Corrugated Silicon Nitride
Diaphragms”, journal of microelectromechanical systems, vol. 3, no. I, 1994. [3] C. J. Van Mullem, K. J.
Gabriel, H. Fujita, “Large deflection performance of surface micro machined corrugated diaphragms,”
Dig.Tech. Papers, Transducers 91, San Francisco, June 1991. [4] Don W Dissanayake, Said Al- Sarawi,
Tien-Fu Lu & Derek Abbott, “Finite element modeling of surface acoustic wave device based corrugated
Micro diaphragms”, Smart materials and structures, 2009. [5] Wonchul Sim, Byungkyu Kim, Bumkyoo
Choi, Jong-Oh Park, “Thermal and load deflec on FE analysis of Parylene diaphragms”, Technical
Proceedings of Fifth International Conference on Modeling and Simulation of Microsystems USA, 2002.
[6] Ansys Inc., Structural analysis online tutorial, Help document available with ANSYS 11.