The Stress Analysis and Sealing Performance of Box-shaped Bolted Flanged Joints Using Silicone Sealant

This paper dealt with the interface stresses of thin wall box-shaped bolted flanged structures when internal pressure was applied. The flexible flanges were fastened by M8 bolts and nuts with an initial clamping force after being joined with silicone sealant. In the elastic and thermo elastic F.E.A, the effects of bolt pitch distance, bolt positions, flange rigidity and flange thickness were examined. In addition, the effect of the liner thermal expansion coefficient and Young's modulus of the joint in the steady temperature state were also examined. The experimental results were in fairly good agreements with the numerical results. From the results, it was found that the effect of thermal condition is greater than that of internal pressure on the interface stress distributions. In other words, it indicates that thermal conditions are affective on the sealing performance rather than internal pressure application in this case. In addition, the sealing performance was found to be better in the joint by using the silicone sealant instead of current formed gasket.