Mariog,

I was trying not to involve in this discussion, however I could not stop myself. I would like to give the discussion address here for the same subject:

http://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=204661

This discussion is for the one of the flange types that GraigB was adressing above.

I believe you already have a spreadsheet since I follow your discussions on this forum on the flange connections. Therefore you must understand that there are some flange geometries with small number of bolts, bolt sizes and large flow area. Second is the use of spiral wound gasket which requires large seating force.

If you put them together you will find these gaskets are failing under the seating condition or/and the bolts are failing. It is nothing to do with the calculation method. CAESAR II follows what codes. I have my own spreadsheet and I see these failures even without consulting to the CAESAR II flange analysis.

I case there are external loads the problem gets worse.

The thing I do not understand is how ASME B16.5 accept these flanges with spiral wound gaskets.

I guess that you are trying to understand how Coade solve the leake calculation. I believe this was discussed again many times. As far as understand they are using the stiffness of bolts, flange and the gasket in their calculation and check against the loading.

Hope it satisfies all parties. Kind regards,

Ibrahim Demir