High Temperature, High Pressure Expansion Joints

Furnished for GE Test Facility

Expansion joints built for a GE test facility extended the limits of expansion joint design. In the most extreme cases, the expansion joints were designed to handle a compressible fluid at 1400OF pressurized to 650 psig. Based upon an experience search performed by GE and Senior Flexonics Pathway, this combination of pressure and temperature had never before been incorporated into the design of an expansion joint.

The expansion joints were hinge and gimbal type construction with floating ring type hardware attachments to minimize thermal stresses. The combination of high temperature and high pressure required the use of materials with excellent resistance to creep at high temperature. Alloy 617 was used for the pipe and certain highly stressed weldments and Alloy 230 was used for the bellows. All the bellows were reinforced with alloy rings to provide the necessary hoop strength at the operating To find out more about high temperature design capabilities, contact Senior Flexonics Pathway.