16587 Pressurised Systems

132
flange bore, however in reality the pressure end load is likely to be transferred through the
centre of the hub to the flange and thus should give something nearer the correct flange
moment.
H
T
is the effect of pressure acting on the annulus of the flange face between the bore and the
effective gasket diameter. This force is assumed to act at the point midway between the
flange bore and the gasket effective diameter.
Bolting-up conditions are covered by considering the load acting as a couple between the
gasket and the bolts i.e.
M
atm
= W h
G
Previous versions of PD5500 used the largest of the two bending moments for the design
after correcting the operating moment to an equivalent ambient temperature moment,
however in the 1991 version of PD 5500, both operating and bolting-up moments are to be
considered separately and the results compared with their respective stress limits in a similar
manner to ASME.
Since the calculations are in a complex form, working sheets are provided in PD 5500.
In PD 5500 three stresses are taken from the analysis in order to determine flange
acceptability for the operating and bolting-up cases separately. These are the longitudinal
hub stress S
H
, radial flange stress S
R
and the tangential flange stress S
T
, which are
limited by,
( )
FA FO T H
FA FO R H
FA FO T R
FA HA H
FO HO H
S or S S S
S r o S S S
S or S S and S
S or S S or
S or S S
< +
< +
<
<
<
) ( 5 . 0
5 . 0
5 . 1 5 . 1
5 . 1 5 . 1
where, S
FO
, S
FA
, S
HO
and S
HA
are the allowable design stresses for the flange and hub
materials, at the operating and ambient temperatures, respectively.
From these it can be seen that since the allowable design stress is usually about 2/3 of the
material yield, then this allows the hub to be stressed up to the material yield point, allowing
yielding in the hub during hydrotest. The flange stress limits are set to a level which should
keep the main flange bodies elastic under all conditions, providing the joint is not
overtightened during bolting-up. The latter two stress limits are the application of a Tresca
type criterion to the bi-directional stresses at the interface between the flange and hub.