Enhanced Optimization of Bolted Ring Joint Assembly Using FEA to Provide Real-Time Mobile Application Integration

Abstract The assembly of bolted ring joints, crucial for applications in industries such as oil and gas, pressure vessels, and heat exchangers, involves complex processes that often pose risks of improper installation, leading to failures and increased costs. Traditional methods to optimize joint assembly, including finite element analysis (FEA), or instrumentation are limited in their ability to provide rapid feedback and typically have significant cost constraints. To address these challenges, this study presents a web and mobile application that is capable of providing realtime optimization for bolted ring joint assemblies in the field. The application interfaces with a cloud hosted API built specifically for modeling bolted ring joints, offering the mobile device application and its users near instant feedback on joint behavior under varying assembly conditions, tailored to the specific joint geometry, material properties and assembly pattern being applied. Within the system, provisions for the integration of feedback from ancillary devices such as the assembly tool or measurements from a subset of studs within the joint have also been made, enabling the creation of a closed loop assembly modeling system for such a dynamic assembly process. This approach enhances both the speed and precision of the process, reducing technician effort and minimizing risk exposure. By employing a high-performance pre-computational cloud hosted back end, the local device application can implement rapid data analysis and visualization, by using pre-computed FEA results, Gradient Descent Optimization (GDO), and realtime feedback integration allowing engineers and technicians to make informed decisions in real-time during joint assembly. The applications prediction of joint behavior through elastic interaction, aligns closely with the observed results of traditional instrumented joints, which served to validate the FEA modeling techniques used to build the API, and extend its applicability to additional joint configurations that were not able to be physically sampled. Overall, this holds promise for advancing safety, reliability, and efficiency in bolted joint assembly, representing a significant step forward in the use of mobile technology for industrial applications.