ANALYSIS OF A NON GASKETED COMPOSITE FLANGE FOR PRELOAD AND OPERATING CONDITIONS

Sunil Kumar B.V, Sathish Nadig, Vasanth Kumar S.N, Sandesh Kamath

Abstract: Flanges are basically used to connect the pipe joints and they are widely used in chemical, power plants, petro chemical industries. Flanges are classified according to class of working range and are designed according to ASME standards. In industries fluid is pressurized and due to this the pipe joints are affected internally as well as externally. We are concentrating on these critical areas by adopting a composite flange. Since composite materials are most promising now days so, use of composite flanges can make difference to the existing components. In the present paper metallic flange for radial stress(x-direction) and axial stresses (y-direction) for preload condition are compared with a carbon epoxy composite flange. Analytical solutions are obtained using laminate theory. The analytical results are validated with finite element solution using different fiber orientations. The stress obtained for different orientations are compared with each other and they are compared with analytical results. From results it can be said that [0/45] and [0/60] orientation will give better results. Finally it is said that metallic flanges can be replaced by composite flanges in some industrial applications as the radial and axial stress developed is less when compared to metallic flanges.

Keywords: Metallic Flange, Composite Materials, Composite Flange, Fiber Orientation, Finite Element Analysis

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15623/ijret.2016.0533010