Studies on gasketed flange joints under bending with anisotropic Hill plasticity model for gasket

The behavior of a gasketed flange joint under bending loads has been studied by three dimensional finite element analysis (FEA) and experiments. The in-plane and bending stiffness of spiral wound gaskets are considered using anisotropic Hill plasticity material model. The variation in bolt axial force of joints under bending load predicted by the finite element analysis compares well with the experimental results. The contact stress distribution obtained have significant variation in the pattern from the previous material models and consistent with the results of Bouzid [1] regarding flange rotation. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd.