M Tech Project Review Report 1

MEC #1

19th October 2016

M Tech Project Review Report

MEC #1
Project Guide: Dr. C. Lakshmana Rao

Submitted by,

Jithin Devan P
AM15M009
Piezoelectric Sensors & Actuators Lab
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MEC #1

Leak characteristics of Elastomeric Seals at Moderate Pressures (~130 bar)

Aim of the Project:

Elastomeric seals are widely used devices to prevent fluid leakage. They are inexpensive, but their
failure can be costly. The explosion of the space shuttle Challenger, for example, was traced to the
failure of an elastomeric O-ring. In spite of their importance, leakage and failure of elastomeric seals
remains to be a poorly understood phenomenon.

There have been very few theories that attempted to quantitatively relate leak of seals with the
contact pressure between the sealing element and its envelope. Theory of leak rate of seals developed
by Persson et al1., is one such recent attempt that relates seal leak to sealing force. This theory
assumes elastomer to be hookean elastic. In general, this is not an assumption that one can make
when large deformations are involved. In many sealing applications seals are squeezed up to 20% of
their thickness for making the initial low pressure sealing. Perssons theory has been experimentally
verified for low pressures (~0.1 bar) that ensured small deformations. In this project, I conduct
experiments to study the sealing at NBR rubber and steel interface. I measure leakage (as a function
of sealing force, fluid pressure and surface roughness of the envelope) at moderately high pressures
(~130 bar) and then verify the applicability of Perssons theory to high pressure scenarios.

Approach:

Carryout a Literature survey on the leakage of elastomeric seals and high pressure sealing
Study the theoretical formulation & calculation of leak rate theories, develop Matlab code for
the theoretical calculation of leak rate.
Design an experiment set up to conduct experiment at 130 bar & measure the leak rate.
Compare the theoretical leak rate with experimental observation.
If the theoretical & experimental results are not in agreement, then Ill probe into the reason
and come up with a modified theory.

1
Persson, B. N. J., and C. Yang. "Theory of the leak-rate of seals." Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter 20.31 (2008):
315011
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Timeline:

October end Designing & Fabrication of Experimental set up

December end Conducting experiments & Debugging of Matlab code. Comparison of results

Modifying the theory if required. Else simulation of the experiment is any of

January end
the commercial packages.

March end Documentation & Fine tuning of the Matlab code

Expected Outcomes:

Validation of Persons leak theory at moderately high pressures with experiments. Or

modified version of Persons leak theory which can be used at moderately high pressures
Leak rate calculation tool using Matlab, which can accurately calculate the leak rate between
elastomer and steel interface.