MACHINE DESIGN - An Integrated Approach, 4th Ed.

Example 15-4-1

EXAMPLE 15-4

Determining the Material Stiffness and Joint Constant

Statement: A pressure chamber is sealed by a gasketed cap fastened with eight preloaded bolts. Find the
gasket stiffness and joint constant for two designs of the assembly as shown in Figure 15-33,
one with a confined gasket and one with an unconfined gasket. Also determine the loads felt by
the bolts and material.

Given: Cylinder: Dp  4  in Dbc  5.50 in Df  7.25 in

Pressure: p  1500 psi Bolts: Nbolts  8 d  0.375  in
Cover: lc  1.125  in Ec  10400  ksi Ebolt  30000  ksi
Flange: lf  0.750  in Ef  30000  ksi
Gasket: tg  0.125  in Rubber
Solution: See Figure 15-33 and Mathcad file Example 15-4.
1. Find the force on the cover per bolt.
2
π Dp 2
Pressurized cover area: A  A  12.566 in
4

Toal force on cover: Ptotal  p  A Ptotal  18850  lbf

Ptotal
Cover force per bolt: P  P  2356 lbf
Nbolts

2. Determine the relevant ratios for this joint from equations 15-17.

Clamped length: l  lc  lf l  1.875 in

d
Joint aspect ratio: j  j  0.2
l
Ef
Plate to bolt modulus: rH  rH  1
Ebolt
Ec
rL  rL  0.347
Ebolt

Low and high modulus

plate thicknesses: TL  lc TL  1.125 in

TH  lf TH  0.75 in

TL
Plate thickness ratio: t  t  0.6
TL  TH

3. Calculate the Cr terms CH and CL for rH and rL , respectively, using equation 15.18 and the coefficients
p i from Table 15-8 for j  0.2 .

Coeficients from Table 15-8: p 0  0.6118 p 1  1.1715 p 2  1.0875

p 3  0.3806

3 2
CL  p 3  rL  p 2  rL  p 1  rL  p 0 CL  0.321
3 2
CH  p 3  rH  p 2  rH  p 1  rH  p 0 CH  0.147

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MACHINE DESIGN - An Integrated Approach, 4th Ed. Example 15-4-2

4. Use equation 15.19 to calculate Ct. taking the coefficients from Table 15-9 for j  0.2 .

Coeficients from Table 15-9: q 0  0.1010 q 1  8.5465 q 2  24.166

q 3  15.497

3 2
Ct  q 3 t  q 2 t  q 1 t  q 0 Ct  0.124

5. Calculate a correction factor to linearize the result from the previous step using equation 15.20.

Correction factor: a  e
 0.0598 ln( j ) 30.1385 ln( j ) 20.4350 ln( j ) 2.3516
a  0.214

6. Using equation 15.21, calculate the joint stiffness factor C.

Joint stiffness factor: C  CH   t  a  Ct   CL  CH  C  0.247

7. The portions of the applied load P felt by the bolt and the material can now be found from equations 15.13.

Load felt by the bolt: Pb  C P Pb  581  lbf

Load felt by the material: Pm  ( 1  C)  P Pm  1775 lbf

8. We can estimate the stiffness of the bolt kb' from equation 15.17 using its shank area and tensile stress area
from Table 15-1 and then estimate the material stiffness km for the confined gasket case by using the
expression for C in equation 15.13c, given kb' and C. The bolt length is lbolt  2.50 in

Length of thread lthd  2  d  0.25 in lthd  1.00 in

Length of shank ls  lbolt  lthd ls  1.50 in
Length of clamped thread lt  l  ls lt  0.375 in
2 2
Shank area Ab  0.25 π d Ab  0.11 in
2
Tensile stress area At  0.0775 in

At  Ab 1
 Ebolt   1 
d 6 lbf
Estimated bolt stiffness kb'   kb'  1.357  10 
Ab  l t  At  l s  l in

( 1  C) 6 lbf
Estimated member stiffness km  kb'  km  4.146  10 
C in

9. Now we will address the unconfined gasket case. The bolt stiffness is not affected by the gasket but the
material stiffness is. We now have two springs in series, the metal, whose stiffness is calculated above, and
the gasket. These combine according to equation 14.2b. The portion of the unconfined gasket subjected to
the clamp force can be assumed to be from the outside diameter of the flange shown in Figure 15-33 to the
inside diameter of the vessel. The bolt hole should be subtracted from the gasket area. The area of the
clamped gasket around one bolt is:

 2 2 
π   Df  Dp  2 2
Gasket area per bolt Ag   d Ag  3.479 in
4  Nbolts 

10. The stiffness of this piece of gasket material is found from equation 15.11c, where, from Table 15-10,
the modulus of rubber is Eg  10 ksi.

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MACHINE DESIGN - An Integrated Approach, 4th Ed. Example 15-4-3

Ag  Eg 5 lbf
Gasket stiffness per bolt kg  kg  2.783  10 
tg in

11. The combined stiffness of the gasketed joint (from equation 14.2b) is
Let the aluminum and gasket stiffnesses be km1  km and km2  kg

Combined gasket and cover 1 5 lbf

stiffness km  km  2.608  10 
1 1 in

km1 km2
Note that the combined stiffness is essentially the same as as that of the soft gasket alone, since it dominates the
equation. We could have used the gasket stiffness kg to represent the joint stiffness km with little error.

12. The joint constant with the unconfined gasket is now

Joint constant with kb'
unconfined gasket C  C  0.839
km  kb'

and ( 1  C)  0.161
13. The portions of the applied load P felt by the bolt and material with a soft, unconfined gasket in the joint can
now be found from equations 15.13.

Load felt by the bolt: Pb  C P Pb  1976 lbf

Load felt by the material: Pm  ( 1  C)  P Pm  380  lbf

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