Advanced Sealing Advanced Sealing
13452 Alondra Blvd. 3803 Old Mobile Hwy
Cerritos, CA 90703 Pascagoula, MS 39581
(562) 802-7782 (228) 938-8000
Topic: New vs. Used Studs in Heat Exchanger Assembly
Rev. Date: 8/20/2013
As a matter of “best practices” Advanced Sealing recommends the use of new stud bolts whenever a
heat exchanger joint is reassembled.
To a company that routinely cleans and reuses stud bolts, this recommendation to use new studs may
seem a little bit over-the-top. Why should new studs be used when the used studs still look new? Isn’t
that just a senseless waste of money? Why throw away a perfectly good stud? In this age of recycling,
isn’t it better to reuse than to replace?
Remember the age-old idiom, “You can’t judge a book by its cover”? Well, here is a perfect example –
you can’t judge a stud by its looks. It is true that pre-used stud bolts can be cleaned up. They can even
be wire-brushed to look like new. But the appearance of a stud is not the most critical of its attributes.
What is most important is its performance. And the data shows that the frictional drag on a used stud is
very unpredictable.
Several years ago Chevron
performed a field test to
investigate this issue.
Among the hundreds of heat
exchangers in their El
Segundo refinery are the
“twin” heat exchangers, E-
1585A and E-1585B,
identical to each other in
every regard. On the day of
the test they replaced the
floating head gasket on each
exchanger and tightened the
connection. Because there
isn't enough room on the
floating head, no hardened
washers were used. Other
than that, best practices
were used; they lubed everything properly and used a calibrated clicker torque wrench on both. The
only difference between E-1585A and E-1585B was the condition of the studs. New studs and nuts were
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used on E-1585B. On the other, E-1585A, they reused the studs after they were cleaned and wire-
brushed to "like new" condition. After torquing they measured the actual stud stress - and the results
are what you see on the accompanying charts.
The first chart shows the results for the used studs used in E-1585A. The table included on the chart
shows that the average stud stress was 28,000-psi, which was 16.4% off from the targeted stress of
33,500-psi. But the “average” stud stress doesn’t tell the whole story, as the scatter (the difference
from bolt-to-bolt) is as much as 10-to-1! Even though the studs were well cleaned and well lubricated, it
was impossible to predict just how much stud load would be generated at a specific torque.
The second chart shows
a greatly improved
picture. The average
stud load is now only
12% off from the desired
load. But more
importantly, the scatter
has been dramatically
reduced – most of the
stud loads are within
10% to 15% of the
average, and the amount
of disparity from the
lowest to the highest has
been reduced by 83%!
Remember that these
results were achieved
without the use of hardened washers under the rotating nut. It is very likely that the use of hardened
washers to reduce the frictional drag at the flange face would have reduced the scatter even more, and
would have boosted the average stud load closer to the projected load. However, even though these
results are not “perfect”, they are certainly “reasonable”.
Why is this critical?
Chevron has proved through years of research that in addition to using an optimal gasket type, the
secret to long-term sealing in heat exchangers depends on how one deals with relaxation in the joint. In
order to manage relaxation it is critical to load the gasket to achieve a high seating stress. This needs to
be done reliably to a high, predetermined value.
So if an engineer determines that a gasket needs 20,000-psi seating stress to give long-term reliability -
and that 600 ft-lbs torque (for example) is required to achieve that load - he has to be able to depend on
the fact that when the studs are torqued to 600 ft-lbs that they will actually generate the bolt stress he
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anticipates.1
And that is the problem with used studs. Due to the almost microscopic rolling and galling on the thread
surfaces, the stud no longer converts torque into stress in a predictable manner. The relationship
between bolt torque and gasket load is broken. Because of this, Chevron requires the use of new studs
whenever an exchanger joint is opened.
Now there are a couple exceptions to this rule - and Chevron recognizes them in its standards. First, if a
stud is being tensioned (not torqued), then it's fine to reuse them - as torque doesn't come into play.
Second, if a person is willing to run the threads on both the studs and nuts with a tap and die - thus
renewing the threads – they can safely reuse the fasteners.
The argument is sometimes advanced that used studs are better than new studs because they have
been work-hardened. The simple response to that argument is that work-hardening doesn't matter.
What matters is the ability of the stud to deliver a predictable load to the gasket - because that is how
leak-free performance achieved.
The proof of this approach is easily seen in Chevron's experience. In the past decade they have achieved
what many considered impossible – they have eliminated exchanger leaks from their refineries. Using
new studs to optimize the gasket load is an important component of the solutions employed to achieve
this end.
1
For a more complete discussion on the importance of targeting specific gasket seating stresses rather than
specific stud stress, see the Tech Note titled Stud Stress or Gasket Stress? Hitting the Right Target.
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