HK40022417B - Apparatus and method for decreasing flow noise in ring-type joints - Google Patents

Description

Apparatus and method for reducing flow noise in an annulus joint

Technical Field

The present invention relates to a fluid flow connector, and more particularly to an annular joint that reduces swirling fluid flow.

Background

Annular joints were originally developed for use on drilling and completion equipment in the oil field for high pressure/high temperature applications found in the oil industry. However, this type of fitting is also found today in valve and tubing assemblies, along with some highly integrated pressure vessel fittings. Annular joints are often used in high pressure applications, and are often used in gas flow applications and are particularly well suited for corrosive environments, such as in ships and offshore oil platforms.

This type of connection uses a ring (often stainless steel) to seal against the groove in each flange. Which is a precision-engineered component designed for use in conjunction with precision-machined flanges. Unfortunately, this type of seal creates a small gap between the flange faces that enhances the swirl of the process fluid as it flows past it. At a sufficiently large velocity, the annular cavity resonates and introduces a large amount of flow noise into the flow path. This is particularly prevalent in gas streams. In annular joint applications involving precise metering, both accuracy and repeatability can be negatively impacted.

According to an embodiment, an annular joint spacer (ring joint spacer) is provided that is insertable between the flange faces within the annular joint. The gasket reduces swirl in the fluid flow and an advance in the art is achieved.

Disclosure of Invention

According to one embodiment, a gasket assembly (gasketAssembly) is provided. The gasket assembly includes a ring seal. The annular seal includes an annular seal body and an annular outer seal portion disposed on the annular seal body and defining an outer edge of the annular seal body. An annular inner seal portion is disposed on the annular seal body and defines an inner edge thereof. The central bore is defined by an annular surface of the annular inner seal portion. An annular joint gasket is provided having an inner surface engaging the annular outer sealing portion of the annular seal, wherein the annular joint gasket is insertable into the flange of the ring joint.

According to one embodiment, a method of forming a gasket assembly is provided. The method includes the step of providing an annular joint gasket having an inner surface. An annular seal is inserted into the annular joint gasket, wherein the annular seal includes an annular seal body, an annular outer seal portion disposed on the annular seal body and defining an outer edge thereof, an annular inner seal portion disposed on the annular seal body and defining an inner edge thereof, and a central bore defined by an annular surface of the annular inner seal portion. An inner surface of the annular joint gasket engages the annular outer sealing portion of the annular seal.

According to one aspect, a gasket assembly includes an annular seal comprising: the annular seal assembly includes an annular seal body, an annular outer seal portion disposed on the annular seal body and defining an outer edge thereof, an annular inner seal portion disposed on the annular seal body and defining an inner edge thereof, a central aperture defined by an annular surface of the annular inner seal portion, and an annular joint gasket having an inner surface engaging the annular outer seal portion of the annular seal, wherein the annular joint gasket is insertable into a flange of the annular joint.

Preferably, the annular joint gasket comprises a BX, RX, SRX, SBX, bridgman, delta or lens type gasket.

Preferably, the annular seal body comprises a width that is less than a width of at least one of the annular outer seal portion and the annular inner seal portion.

Preferably, the annular seal body comprises a width that is smaller than a width at both the annular outer seal portion and the annular inner seal portion.

Preferably, the annular inner sealing portion comprises a frusto-conical (frustoconical) cross-section.

Preferably, the frustum (frustum) comprises an angle of about 45 ° with respect to the annular surface.

Preferably, the frustum comprises an angle between about 10 ° and 80 ° with respect to the annular surface.

According to one aspect, a method of forming a gasket assembly includes the steps of: providing an annular joint gasket having an inner surface and inserting an annular seal into the annular joint gasket, wherein the annular seal comprises: the seal assembly includes an annular seal body, an annular outer seal portion disposed on the annular seal body and defining an outer edge thereof, an annular inner seal portion disposed on the annular seal body and defining an inner edge thereof, and a central bore defined by an annular surface of the annular inner seal portion. The inner surface of the annular joint engages the gasket with the annular outer sealing portion of the annular seal.

Preferably, the method includes the step of inserting an annular joint gasket into the flange of the annular joint.

Preferably, the annular joint gasket comprises a BX, RX, SRX, SBX, bridgman, triangular or lens gasket.

Preferably, the method includes the step of forming the annular seal body with a width less than a width of at least one of the annular outer seal portion and the annular inner seal portion.

Preferably, the method includes the step of forming the annular seal body with a width that is less than a width at both the annular outer seal portion and the annular inner seal portion.

Preferably, the method includes the step of forming the annular inner seal portion to include a frusto-conical cross-section.

Preferably, the method comprises the step of forming the frustum to include an angle of about 45 ° with respect to the annular surface.

Preferably, the method comprises the step of forming the frustum to include an angle between about 10 ° and 80 ° with respect to the annular surface.

Preferably, the method includes the step of inserting an annular joint gasket into the flowmeter flange.

Preferably, the method includes the step of pressing the annular seal into an annular gap defined by the annular gasket and the flange.

Preferably, the annular seal substantially fills the annular gap.

Drawings

Figure 1 shows a cross-section of a prior art annular fitting component;

FIG. 2 illustrates a prior art octagonal annular joint gasket;

FIG. 3 illustrates an annular seal according to an embodiment;

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the ring seal of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is an enlarged view of the gasket of FIGS. 3 and 4;

FIG. 6 illustrates an annular seal installed in an annular joint gasket in accordance with one embodiment;

FIG. 7 shows the annular seal and annular fitting gasket installed in the annular fitting component; and

FIG. 8 illustrates an exploded view of a ring seal installed in a flow meter according to an embodiment.

Detailed Description

Fig. 3-8 and the following description depict specific examples to teach those skilled in the art how to make and use the best mode of the invention. For the purpose of teaching inventive principles, some conventional aspects have been simplified or omitted. Those skilled in the art will appreciate variations from these examples that are within the scope of the invention. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the features described below can be combined in various ways to form multiple variations of the invention. Accordingly, the present invention is not limited to the specific examples described below, but only by the claims and their equivalents.

Fig. 1 shows a portion of a prior art annular joint assembly 10, and fig. 2 shows a prior art octagonal annular joint washer 12. An elliptical ring joint gasket 14 is mounted in a groove 16 defined by an annular joint flange 18. Instead of the elliptical washer 14, an octagonal annular joint washer 12 may be used according to the application. However, the annular joint flange 18 typically has a groove 16 configured to receive the particular type of annular joint gasket that is used. Other types of annular joint gaskets are also known in the art, such as, for example, triangular, lens, and bridgman-type gaskets.

In practice, the two annular joint flanges 18 are secured to one another with mechanical fasteners (not shown) that pass through flange apertures 20 defined by each annular joint flange 18. The annular joint gasket 12 fills and seals the groove 16 in each annular joint flange 18. When the fastener is tightened, the annular joint gasket 12 is pressed into the groove 16 and deformed to seal the flange-to-flange engagement. Depending on the joint geometry and material selection, pressure in the process line may cause the annular joint gasket 12 to deform and act as a self-energizing seal. Ideally, the hardness of the annular joint gasket 12 should be less than the hardness of the annular joint flange 18 to prevent deformation of the flange. The high stress provides a tight seal for sealing high pressure fluids such as oil and gas.

The annular joint gasket is typically made of a low carbon or low alloy steel lacking corrosion resistance or a corrosion resistant steel such as stainless steel or a nickel-based corrosion resistant alloy.

Fig. 3 to 5 show an annular seal 100 according to an embodiment. The annular seal 100 includes an annular seal body 102 having a central bore 104 therein. The ring seal 100 includes an annular outer seal portion 106 and an annular inner seal portion 108. In one embodiment, the ring seal 100 is made of a semi-compliant material (such as, without limitation, polytetrafluoroethylene, for example). High or low compliance rubbers, plastics, thermoplastic compounds, and polymers are also contemplated. In addition, metals, ceramics, glass, and composites are also contemplated. In embodiments using metal, the annular seal 100 is preferably formed of a softer metal (such as, without limitation, alloys such as silver, tin, lead, and indium) than those used in the annular joint assembly 10.

Turning to fig. 6, and with continued reference to fig. 1-5, it will be apparent that the annular seal 100 is configured to be insertable into the annulus (annuus) of an annular joint gasket to form a gasket assembly 120, such as, without limitation, the prior art annular joint gaskets 12, 14 of fig. 1 and 2, for example. Although octagonal 12 and oval 14 annular joint gaskets are shown, the annular seal may be configured to be insertable into BX, RX, SRX, SBX, bridgman, triangular, lens, and any other annular joint gasket style or configuration known in the art.

When the two annular joint flanges 18 are mated, the inner surface 13 of the annular gasket and the annular joint flanges 18 define a cavity or annular gap 15 (see fig. 1 and 2). This annular gap 15 between the flange faces enhances the swirl as the process fluid flows therethrough. At a sufficiently high velocity, particularly in the gas flow, the annular gap 15 resonates and introduces a significant amount of flow noise into the conduit (not shown) to which the annular joint assembly 10 is attached.

To reduce the swirl induced by the process fluid flowing through the annular gap 15 of the annular joint assembly 10, an annular seal 100 is inserted into the annular joint gaskets 12, 14 to mate with the inner surface 13 thereof. Which is mounted as a sub-assembly in the header assembly 10 as shown in fig. 6. Because the ring seal 100 is semi-compliant in most embodiments, upon compression of the annular joint flange 18, the ring seal 100 is slightly compressed into the annular gap 15, which prevents ring gasket chatter (ratetle) or resonance and also substantially fills the annular gap 15.

Turning again to fig. 3-5, the inner seal portion 108 bounds the central bore 104. The outer seal portion 106 defines an annular surface 110. In one embodiment, the annular surface 110 has a frustoconical cross-section (see FIG. 5 for cross-sectional details). However, curved, triangular and polygonal cross-sections are also contemplated in embodiments. Furthermore, the frusto-conical and triangular cross-sections may also include rounded or "soft" edges. "hard" or angular edges are shown as examples. In one embodiment, the angle of frustum 112 with respect to annular surface 110 is approximately 45 °. However, a range of angles from about 10 ° to about 80 ° is contemplated. In another embodiment, consider the profile of a straight line and therefore the angle would be 90 °.

The seating surfaces (seating faces) 114 that engage the annular joint gaskets 12, 14 may be flat, as shown. In other embodiments, the seating surface 114 may be convex, concave, angular, faceted, ribbed, ridged, or otherwise shaped to engage a profile of an annular joint gasket into which it is configured to be installed.

The annular seal body 102 is thinner in cross-sectional width W (fig. 5) than the width of either the outer seal portion 106 or the annular inner seal portion 108 or both the outer seal portion 106 and the annular inner seal portion 108. This feature is provided to allow the inner and/or outer seal portions 106, 108 to contact the flange face 18 and preferably deform slightly without forcing the annular seal 100 material into the flow stream. Although a variation at installation is preferred, this is not strictly necessary for all embodiments. In some embodiments, the volume of the annular seal 100 may be sufficient to substantially fill the volume of the annular gap 15 when the surfaces of the annular joint assembly 10 are engaged by the annular seal 100. Fig. 7 shows the ring seal 100 installed in the fitting assembly 10.

Fig. 8 illustrates a flow meter 200, which may be any vibrating meter, such as, without limitation, a coriolis flow meter or a densitometer, for example. The flow meter 200 includes a sensor assembly 215 and meter electronics 220. The sensor assembly 215 may be responsive to the mass flow rate and density of the process material. Meter electronics 220 is connected to sensor assembly 215 via leads 210, 211', 212 to provide density, mass flow rate, and temperature information, among other information, on path 226. The sensor assembly 215 includes flanges 201 and 201 ', a pair of manifolds 202 and 202', a pair of parallel conduits 203 (first conduits) and 203 '(second conduits), a driver 204, a temperature sensor 207 such as a Resistance Temperature Detector (RTD), and a pair of pickoff 205 and 205' such as a magnet/coil pickoff, strain gauge, optical sensor, or any other pickoff known in the art.

When flanges 201 and 201' are connected to a process line (not shown) that carries the process material being measured, the material enters first end 230 of flowmeter 200 through a first orifice (not visible in the view of fig. 8) in flange 201 and is directed through manifold 202. Within manifold 202, the material is separated and routed through conduits 203 and 203'. Upon exiting conduits 203 and 203 ', the process materials are recombined into a single stream within manifold 202 ' and thereafter routed to exit second end 231, which is connected by flange 201 ' to a process line (not shown).

The conduits 203 and 203 ' are selected and suitably mounted to the conduit mounting blocks 209 and 209 ' to have substantially the same mass distribution, moment of inertia, and young's modulus about the bending axes W-W and W ' - -W ', respectively. Since the young's modulus of the conduits 203, 203 ' changes with temperature, and this change affects the calculation of flow and density, a temperature sensor 207 is mounted to the conduits 203 and 203 ' to continuously measure the temperature of the conduits. The temperature of the conduit, and hence the voltage across the temperature sensor 207 that appears for a given current therethrough, is primarily determined by the temperature of the material passing through the conduit. The temperature dependent voltage appearing across temperature sensor 207 is used by meter electronics 220 in a known manner to compensate for changes in the modulus of elasticity of conduits 203 and 203 'due to any changes in the temperature of conduits 203 and 203'. The temperature sensor is connected to meter electronics 220.

Both conduits 203 and 203 'are driven in opposite directions about their respective bending axes W and W' by driver 204, referred to herein as the first out-of-phase bending mode of the flow meter. The driver 204 may comprise any one of a number of known components, such as a magnet mounted to the conduit 203' and an opposing coil mounted to the conduit 203, with an alternating current passing through them to vibrate both conduits. Suitable drive signals are applied by meter electronics 220 to driver 204 via leads 210. It should be understood that although discussed with respect to two conduits 203, 203', in other embodiments only a single conduit may be provided or more than two conduits may be provided. It is also within the scope of the invention for multiple drivers to generate multiple drive signals.

Meter electronics 220 receives the temperature signal and the left and right velocity signals that appear on leads 211 and 211', respectively. Meter electronics 220 generates drive signals appearing on leads 210 to driver 204 and vibrates catheters 203, 203'. The meter electronics 220 processes the left and right velocity signals and the temperature signal to calculate the mass flow rate and density of the material passing through the sensor assembly 215. This information, along with other information, is applied by meter electronics 220 to utilization devices (utilization means) on path 226. The circuitry of meter electronics 220 need not be explained to understand the present invention and has been omitted for the sake of brevity of this description. It should be understood that the illustration of fig. 8 is provided merely as an example of the operation of one possible vibrating meter and is not intended to limit the teachings of the present invention. A coriolis flowmeter structure is illustrated, although it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced on a vibrating tube densitometer. In fact, the invention can be employed in all sizes of pipelines, conduits, flanges with or without devices for measuring mass flow, density, etc. The present invention can also be practiced without any flow meter 200.

The illustrated annular joint gaskets 14 are fitted into the flanges 201, 201', and the annular seal 100 is inserted into the annular face of each annular joint gasket 14. Suitable process line flanges (not shown) are attached to each flange 201, 201' to attach the flowmeter 200 to a process line (not shown). Again, although an oval 14 ring joint gasket is illustrated, the ring seal may be configured to be insertable into BX, RX, SRX, SBX, bridgman, triangle, lens, and any other ring joint gasket style or configuration known in the art.

The above detailed description of embodiments is not an exhaustive description of all embodiments contemplated by the inventors to be within the scope of the invention. Indeed, those skilled in the art will recognize that certain elements of the above-described embodiments may be variously combined or eliminated to form additional embodiments, and that such additional embodiments are within the scope and teachings of the present invention. It will also be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that the above-described embodiments may be combined in whole or in part to form additional embodiments within the scope and teachings of the present invention.

Thus, while specific embodiments of, and examples for, the invention are described herein for illustrative purposes, various equivalent modifications are possible within the scope of the invention, as those skilled in the relevant art will recognize. The teachings provided herein may be applied to other vibratory systems and not only to the embodiments described above and shown in the figures. Accordingly, the scope of the invention should be determined from the following claims.

Claims (12)

1. A gasket assembly (120), comprising:

an annular seal (100) comprising:

an annular seal body (102);

an annular outer seal portion (106) disposed on the annular seal body (102) and defining an outer edge of the annular seal body;

an annular inner seal portion (108) disposed on the annular seal body (102) and defining an inner edge of the annular seal body;

a central bore (104) defined by an annular surface (110) of the annular inner seal portion (108), wherein a radially inner portion of the annular inner seal portion (108) comprises a frustum of a truncated cone in cross-section;

an annular joint gasket (12) having an inner surface (13) engaging an annular outer sealing portion (106) of the annular seal (100), wherein the annular joint gasket is insertable into a flange of a ring joint, wherein the annular seal body (102) comprises a width (W) that is less than a width at both the annular outer sealing portion (106) and the annular inner sealing portion (108); and is

Wherein the annular joint gasket is axially higher than the annular seal in an uncompressed state.

2. The gasket assembly (120) of claim 1, wherein the annular joint gasket (12) comprises a BX, RX, SRX, SBX, bridgman, triangular, or lens gasket.

3. The washer assembly (120) of claim 1, wherein the frustum (112) comprises an angle of 45 ° with respect to the annular surface (110).

4. The washer assembly (120) of claim 3, wherein frustum (112) comprises an angle between 10 ° and 80 ° with respect to the annular surface (110).

5. A method of forming a gasket assembly comprising the steps of:

providing an annular joint gasket having an inner surface;

inserting an annular seal into the annular joint gasket, wherein the annular seal comprises:

an annular seal body;

an annular outer seal portion disposed on the annular seal body and defining an outer edge of the annular seal body;

an annular inner seal portion disposed on the annular seal body and defining an inner edge of the annular seal body; and

a central bore defined by an annular surface of the annular inner seal portion, wherein a radially inner portion of the annular inner seal portion (108) comprises a frustum of a frustoconical cross-section;

forming the annular seal body with a width less than a width of both the annular outer seal portion and the annular inner seal portion, an

Engaging an inner surface of the annular joint gasket with an annular outer sealing portion of the annular seal; and is

Wherein the annular joint gasket is axially higher than the annular seal in an uncompressed state.

6. The method of forming a gasket assembly of claim 5, comprising the steps of: inserting the annular joint gasket into the flange of the ring joint.

7. The method of forming a gasket assembly of claim 5, wherein said annular joint gasket comprises a BX, RX, SRX, SBX, Bridgeman, triangular or lens gasket.

8. The method of forming a gasket assembly of claim 5, comprising the steps of: forming a frustum to include an angle of 45 ° with respect to the annular surface.

9. The method of forming a gasket assembly of claim 5, comprising the steps of: forming a frustum to include an angle between 10 ° and 80 ° with respect to the annular surface.

10. The method of forming a gasket assembly of claim 5, comprising the steps of: inserting the annular joint gasket into a flowmeter flange.

11. The method of forming a gasket assembly of claim 5, comprising the steps of: the annular seal is compressed in an annular gap defined by an annular joint gasket and a flange.

12. The method of forming a gasket assembly of claim 11, wherein said annular seal substantially fills said annular gap.