On the Use of Dual Kriging Interpolation for the Evaluation of the Gasket Stress Distribution in Bolted Joints

The leakage behavior of bolted joint is very much dictated by the gasket contact stress. In particular, the non-uniform distribution of this stress in the radial direction caused by the flange rotational flexibility has a major influence on the leak tightness of some gasket types. The current ASME flange design rules and the new ASME proposed design rules addresses this effect by introducing the concept of gasket effective width for which the validity of the suggested values has not been verified. This paper presents a simple comprehensive analytical approach based on the dual kriging interpolation technique to predict the gasket contact stress distribution in floating type bolted joints. The kriging methodology is shown to be very efficient when nonlinear modeling such as gasket material mechanical behavior is involved. Together with the flange rotational flexibility, this technique implemented in the “SuperFlange” program is supported and validated by numerical FEA conducted on different flange sizes and gasket materials combinations.