On the Buckling of Spiral Wound Gaskets

The buckling of spiral wound gaskets (SWGs) causes turbulence of the fluid flow inside flanges and may result in leakage failure over time due to the unwinding of the spirals. A few limited studies on the lateral forces generated by axial compression of the gasket sealing element which cause this phenomenon are available in the literature. The lateral forces are generated during initial tightening and are not distributed uniformly in the circumferential direction. Hence, there is an introduction of concentrated forces in small areas. The nonuniform gasket contact stress caused by the tightening sequence makes the problem more complex. It is suggested to study experimentally the buckling of SWGs by developing a special test bench designed for this purpose. This test bench is able to measure the lateral loads and winding inward displacement during the tightening process. The experimental results are to be compared to those obtained by numerical finite element simulation for the purpose of extrapolating for other size gaskets.