The sealing mechanism of radial lip seals: A numerical study of the tangential distortion of the sealing edge

Abstract

The sealing behaviour of elastomeric radial lip seals is essentially affected by the sealing mechanism in the contact area between the sealing edge and the shaft surface. The relative motion between radial lip seal and shaft deforms the sealing edge tangentially in the circumferential direction. This mechanical deformation is considered essential for the sealing mechanism. In this study, a numerical approach is employed to simulate this deformation. A three-dimensional multiscale model serves this purpose. The radial lip seal geometry is described on the macro-scale. On the micro-scale, an artificial rough surface with a stochastic roughness distribution is applied to an ideal sealing edge surface. A new meshing algorithm is used to discretise different sealing edge surfaces and automatically generates structured hexahedral meshes of the sealing edges. Mesh transitions connect the resulting finely meshed sealing edge to the coarsely meshed global macro-scale mesh of the radial lip seal. The paper introduces the modelling method used to simulate the deformation of radial lip seals. Results are presented and discussed with reference to the sealing behaviour. This contributes to a better understanding of the sealing mechanism of radial lip seals. Keywords: radial lip seal, finite element analysis, surface roughness, elastic deformation, elastomers.

Simulation of the surface and volume stress in the contact archwire/bracket for classical friction and critical contact angle

“…ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi ffi ðξ À c 2 Þðc 1 À ξÞ p ðξ À xÞ dξ (15) And will require the consistency of the integral between c 1 and, c 2 namely:…”

“…Different numerical approaches exist in the literature to simulate the behavior of the archwire in contact with the bracket [12][13][14][15]. Similar geometries have been recreated in a variety of applications, including seal simulations [15] and coil springs [16].…”

“…Different numerical approaches exist in the literature to simulate the behavior of the archwire in contact with the bracket [12][13][14][15]. Similar geometries have been recreated in a variety of applications, including seal simulations [15] and coil springs [16]. As a result, Xinwen et al created a finite element approach for calculating orthodontic force in the entire dentition utilizing a three-dimensional mandible, brackets, and archwire model.…”

Multiphase Computational Fluid Dynamics of Rotary Shaft Seals

“…This study focuses on the hydrodynamic effects of the rough elastomer sealing edge surface, so the shaft surface is assumed to be ideally smooth in a first approximation. The deformed rough sealing edge surface h(x, y) results from previous finite element analyses (FEA) according to [20,21]. The limit gap height h lim provides the definition for the air side and the oil side border of the fluid domain.…”

Three-dimensional modelling of tensile behaviour for standard aluminium specimens

“…Finite element analysis (FEA) is an effective computational approach to solving various engineering problems by modelling a situation according to the applied boundary conditions and then obtaining a solution using different mathematical models. ANSYS is commercially available software that is frequently used to simulate such problems to obtain a numerical solution [7][8][9][10][11].…”