This European Standard defines a calculation method for bolted, gasketed, circular flange joints. Its purpose is to ensure structural integrity and control of leak tightness. It uses gasket parameters based on definitions and test methods specified in EN 13555.
The calculation method is not applicable to joints with a metallic contact out of the sealing face or to joints whose rigidity varies appreciably across gasket width. For gaskets in incompressible materials, which permit large deformations, the results given by the calculation method can be excessively conservative (i.e. required bolting load too high, allowable pressure of the fluid too low, required flange thickness too large, etc.).