Designing and testing characteristics of thin stainless steel diaphragms

Abstract

Metal membranes are defined as thin steel circular plates. The metal membranes are widely used in the measurement technique and they are constantly loaded over the entire surface. In case that a membrane is loaded with uniform load over the entire surface. In case that the membrane is stiffened over the edge, then it is called a diaphragm. According to the making method membranes are divided into flat and corrugated. Corrugated membranes are used mainly in a low pressure area. Membranes are most commonly made of firm alloy austenitic steel. In this paper numerical and experimental analysis of a thin corrugated diaphragm 24 mm diameter is presented, with variable material thickness and variable corrugations geometry. Experimental tests are conducted on a corrugated stainless steel (AISI 316) diaphragm. Experimental results are compared with numerical results in ANSYS software package. A comparative analysis of the sinusoidal and toroidal diaphragms has shown that there is a higher sensitivity of the sinusoidal diaphragm, that is, if the thickness of the diaphragm increases, and their stiffness is increased. In general, for small pressure ranges from 10 mbar to 50 mbar, the sinusoidal diaphragms have a faster response.