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5 views

A

Uploaded by

Rudi Wijanarko
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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effects on bolts; an increase in temperature causes them

to physically grow and also causes a drop in their overall

strength. Because of this, the actual load on a bolt will

fluctuate as the temperature varies, making it possible

to yield a bolt without applying any additional load to it.

if a bolt is torqued to 90% of its yield strength at room

temperature and then heated to its maximum allowable

service temperature, the yield strength of the material

drops, possibly below the load that has been applied,

resulting in failure. the engineer has to consider the

properties of the bolt at its actual operating temperature

and calculate the required torque value based on the

bolt’s strength at that temperature. Prolonged exposure

to high temperatures also can cause creep relaxation

of the bolt. the effects of high temperature creep on the

bolted joint as a whole can be kept to a minimum simply

by carefully choosing a bolt material that is designed

for high temperature service.

the effects of thermal expansion and contraction become

even more complex when looking at the flange joint as

a whole. not only does the bolt expand and contract as

the temperature changes, but the flange does as well (the

gasket also undergoes this expansion and contraction,

but for the sake of simplicity, the focus will be on the bolt

and flange). each component is made from a different

material, each with a different rate of expansion and

contraction. as the temperature increases, the bolt grows

in length and the flange increases in thickness, but the


rate at which each grows is different. depending on the

material characteristics, one grows faster or slower than

the other. also note that the dimensions of each

component are different (the bolt length is more than

the flange thickness), so the amount that each expands

is going to vary.

the drawing below depicts the effects of thermal

expansion and contraction in a gasketed flange in a heat

exchanger; however, the events shown are common to all

gasketed flanges in applications where thermal cycling

takes place. stage 1 shows the bolt and gasket stresses

increase as the flange is assembled and the bolts is

torqued to the required value. stage 2 shows the effects

of hydrostatic end thrust. at startup of the system, the

internal pressure increases, pushing the flange faces apart

and partially unloading the gasket; note that the bolt load

remains relatively constant and does not reveal any

decrease in gasket load.

For the purpose of this discussion, assume the bolt grows

at a slower rate than the flange. in stage 3, heat is applied

to the joint. When the temperature begins to increase, the

flange thickness increases faster than the bolt length. the

flange starts to exert more force on the rest of the joint

as it grows; this causes a rise in the stress on the gasket

and the bolt. as the flange reaches full temperature, it

stops increasing in thickness; this is the point where the

peak stress on the gasket occurs.

stage 4 shows the bolt continuing to grow in length while

the flange has finished growing; the result is a gradual


decrease in the load on the gasket and bolt. When the

bolt stops growing, the stress on the gasket reaches a

steady state. the relative decrease in gasket stress from

the beginning of stage 3 to the end of stage 4 is a result

of gasket creep at elevated temperature and the fact that

no gasket recovers 100%. this effect becomes even more

pronounced as the gasket thickness increases.

Remove the heat source, and the opposite of the heating

cycle takes place. this is shown in stage 5. the flange and

bolts begin to contract, with the flange shrinking faster

than the bolts. Remember the bolts were stretched when

the initial load was applied. as the flange contracts, the

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